Hi, this confused me quite a bit. carbon-14 “loses a proton” to become nitrogen? doesn’t it technically gain one, since one of it’s neutrons becomes a proton or something?
Your latter reasoning is correct.
C14 nucleus has a structure of 6 protons + 8 neutrons. One of the neutrons becomes a proton under a process called beta-decay while one electron and one antineutrino are also produced. The new atom is N14 with 7 protons + 7 neutrons in its nucleus.
The text says “loses a proton” which is not quite comprehensive!
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The sentence “it loses a proton” in your screenshot of the Pearson has been revised and edited to “a neutron decays in to a proton” in the 12th edition of the book. I have just checked.
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Woah they did!? Lol
Well, in any case, thank you for confirming my concern. I’m glad i could tell something was wrong here but i fear there could be another mistake that might go under the radar next time and cause me to learn an incorrect piece of information because of it. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen i guess 
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