Use the equation to complete the activity. 219 86Rn→215 84Po+α The nuclear equation shows the transmutation of a form of radon into polonium and an alpha particle. In one to two sentences, explain whether or not the reaction is balanced.
The reaction is balanced because the sum of the atomic numbers and the sum of the mass numbers on both sides of the equation are equal.
To determine if the nuclear equation is balanced, we need to check if the total number of protons and neutrons is the same on both sides of the equation. In this case, we can see that on the left side there are 86 protons and 219 nucleons (protons + neutrons), while on the right side we have 84 protons from polonium, plus 4 protons and 2 neutrons from the alpha particle, giving us a total of 86 protons and 220 nucleons. Therefore, the reaction is not balanced because the number of nucleons is not conserved.
The given nuclear equation is balanced because the sum of atomic numbers on both sides of the equation is equal, as well as the sum of the mass numbers.
