Mass-to-charge ratio used as its unit in the field of mass spectrometry. Some fields use the charge-to-mass ratio ("Q"/"m") instead, which is the multiplicative inverse of the mass-to-charge ratio. The 2014 CODATA recommended value for an electron is = . When charged particles move in electric and magnetic fields the following two laws apply: where F is the force applied to the ion, "m" is the mass of the particle, a is the acceleration, "Q" is the electric charge, E is the electric field, and v × B is the cross product of the ion's velocity and the magnetic flux density. This
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