Question: An a particle produced in radioactive a decay has a kinetic energy of typically about 6 MeV. When an a particle passes through matter (e.g.,

An a particle produced in radioactive a decay has a kinetic energy of typically about 6 MeV. When an a particle passes through matter (e.g., biological tissue), it makes ionizing collisions with molecules, giving up some of its kinetic energy to supply the binding energy of the electron that is removed. If a typical ionization energy for a molecule in the body is around 20 eV, roughly how many molecules can the alpha particle ionize before coming to rest?

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