Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen and it has 2 neutrons in its nucleus. Write the nuclear equation describing the decay of tritium to helium-3.

Question

koikkara · Answer

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium @kym02

whpalmer4 · Answer

How many protons and neutrons respectively in the helium-3 nucleus?  What has to happen to turn a tritium nucleus into a helium-3 nucleus?

anonymous · Answer

There are 3 neutrons and 2 protons in the helium-3 nucleus and in order for a tritium nucleus to turn into a helium-3 nucleus, the tritium must undergo beta decay. @whpalmer4 ^_^ got it now, thank you!

@Koikkara Thanks a bunch for the extra info! :)

whpalmer4 · Answer

uh, helium-3 has 2 protons and 1 neutron, total of 3 nucleons.  beta decay is the operative means to get from H-3 to He-3.