Comment on These gender reveals are getting rather ridiculous..

• peoplebeproblems@midwest.social ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Sort of? Radiation refers to any ionizing wave- particle. This means ultraviolet, x-rays and gamma-rays are not possible to see.

  Alpha and beta particles can only produce visible light if they are moving faster than the medium that light travels through. Because Alpha and Beta particles are massive they cannot reach c (speed of light in a vacuum) but in water, as being discussed, any velocity >0.75c will produce the light.

  Electrons and positrons are a much lower mass and require much lower energy to get moving at a sufficient speed. This means beta decay is a candidate for it, but the beta decay of naturally radioactive elements is too low of an energy for this to be observed. In nuclear fission, the neutrons won’t interact this way as they aren’t charged. The immediate fission products, however, are usually of very high instability and some of these do decay by beta emission in a very short period of time.

  Alpha particles, which are usually 5 mev, do not create the light, as they are much more massive. These are released from things like Uranium-238 to Thorium-234.

  source