Chemistry › Section U · Nuclear chemistry › Topic U.3
Radioactive decay and half-life
No one can say when a single unstable nucleus will decay, yet a large sample decays with clockwork regularity. That regularity, measured by the half-life, lets us predict how long a medical isotope stays useful and read the ages of bones, wood and rocks.
In this topic
- Parents, daughters and the band of stability
- Worked example: predicting the decay mode
- Decay series
- Worked example: counting steps in the uranium-238 series
- Decay is a first-order process
- A wide range of half-lives
- Worked example: iodine-131 in the body
- Radiocarbon dating
- Worked example: dating charcoal and rock
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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