system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Can an alpha particle and two beta particles be combined to form a Helium atom?

If this is the case, could other elements be formed by combining types of radiation—for example two alpha particles and sixteen beta particles to form Oxygen?
gpt
Sure, these things are possible, but extremely unlikely to happen in the real world. When an alpha particle is emitted into matter, it's surrounded in a bath of atoms, most with multiple electrons. It's very easy to pick up electrons from the environment. If you bring a beta source into the mix, the electrons emitted by the beta source are a needle in a gigantic haystack, the haystack being all of the other electrons in the environment.