Introduction to electromagnetism is a quantity used to determine how a particle will behave in an electric field. There are three possible "types" of charge: positive, negative, and neutral. However, the distinction between positive and negative is by convention only. Electric charge is quantized in units of the elementary charge, formula_1, where a proton has a charge of formula_2 and an electron has a charge of formula_3. The SI unit of charge is the coulomb. The elementary charge formula_1 was first measured by Robert Millikan in his oil drop experiment in which the electric force on the particle is set to exactly counter
Alpha particle less likely to be referred to as "alpha particles". The best-known source of alpha particles is alpha decay of heavier (> 106 u atomic weight) atoms. When an atom emits an alpha particle in alpha decay, the atom's mass number decreases by four due to the loss of the four nucleons in the alpha particle. The atomic number of the atom goes down by exactly two, as a result of the loss of two protons – the atom becomes a new element. Examples of this sort of nuclear transmutation are when uranium becomes thorium, or radium becomes radon gas, due