Atoms half-life

1  Introduction

There's lot to learn so take the page in small steps.

Atom, the basic building block of all matter and chemistry. Atoms can combine with other atoms to form molecules but cannot be divided into smaller parts by ordinary chemical processes.

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More.

1    A lot of detail

1. Atoms are the tiny bits of stuff that make up everything in the universe.
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3. They are like Lego bricks, but way smaller and way more awesome. Some atoms are stable, meaning they don't change much over time.
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5. Others are unstable, meaning they like to spit out parts of themselves and turn into different atoms.
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7. This is called radioactive decay, and it's how we get cool things like nuclear power, X-rays, and superheroes.
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9. But not all atoms decay at the same rate.
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11. Some are super chill and take billions of years to decay, while others are super hyper and decay in a fraction of a second.
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13. The rate of decay is measured by something called the half-life, which is the time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to decay.
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16. Let's say you have 100 atoms of carbon-14, which is an unstable form of carbon that is used for dating fossils etc.
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18. Carbon-14 has a half-life of about 5,730 years, which means that after 5,730 years, you will have 50 atoms of carbon-14 left, and 50 atoms of something else (in this case, nitrogen-14).
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20. After another 5,730 years, you will have 25 atoms of carbon-14 left, and so on.
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22. The half-life of an atom depends on how many protons and neutrons it has in its nucleus (the center part).
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24. If it has too many or too few of either, it becomes unstable and tries to balance itself out by emitting particles or energy.
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26. This changes the number of protons or neutrons in the nucleus, which changes the type of atom it is.
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28. Why do some atoms have a half-life and others don't?
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30. Well, it turns out that some atoms are just lucky and have the perfect balance of protons and neutrons to be stable forever (or at least until something else messes with them).
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34. These are called stable isotopes, and there are about 300 of them in nature.
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36. The rest are unstable isotopes, and there are thousands of them.

2    Bottom Line

1. Atomic nuclei have a half-life because they are either stable or unstable, depending on how many protons and neutrons they have.
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3. And that's why some things glow in the dark and others don't
have different half-lives.


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