Nuclear equations and conservation of charge

[tsutsuji]

Do you know why in most textbooks, like on http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Basic.html or http://books.google.com/books?id=xD0AwBQECasC&pg=PA196 beta decay equations are written like

^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N+e^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{e}

instead of

^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N^{+}+e^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{e}

Wouldn't the latter be more correct as regards conservation of charge ?

 

[daveb]

Do you know why in most textbooks, like on http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Basic.html or http://books.google.com/books?id=xD0AwBQECasC&pg=PA196 beta decay equations are written like

^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N+e^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{e}

instead of

^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N^{+}+e^{-}+\overline{\nu}_{e}

Wouldn't the latter be more correct as regards conservation of charge ?

I usually see it written as

^{14}_{6}C\rightarrow^{14}_{7}N+^{ 0}_{-1}e+^{0}_{0}\overline{\nu}_{e}

 

[Vanadium 50]

The equation is discussing the nucleus, not the atom. So no need to put a + in front of the N.

 

[technician]

completely agree with Vanadium... the + is included in the 7 of Nitrogen

 

[tsutsuji]

Thanks for all the replies.