A radioactive isotope's nucleus is unstable and spontaneously decays, giving off radiation and changing into a different isotope. The rate at which nuclei decay is constant.

Radioactive isotopes are nuclides whose nuclei are unstable and radioactive. Radioactive isotopes undergo radioactive decay and emit gamma rays and sub-atomic particles. If all isotopes of an element ...

For any substantial sample of a radioactive isotope, half the atoms will decay in a period known as that isotope’s half-life. If you suitably store a kilogram of carbon-14, 5,700 years later ...

“Every second, 4,000 to 5,000 nuclei decay in your own body, caused by natural radioactive isotopes like potassium 40 and carbon 14. We also have radiation from the universe and from the ground.” ...

The graphic below charts the time it takes for the longest-lived isotope — a form having the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons — of each of the unstable elements to decay.

As it turns out, they probably aren't. After poring over the data, engineers and physicists noted a recurring pattern 33 days long that affected the decay rates of the various radioactive substances.

IN the course of investigations with radioactive isotopes in this Department, anomalous rates of decay have been observed with some isotopes in particular chemical forms. The escape of iodine-131 ...

Physicists Peer Closely At Radioactive Decay Of A Rare Isotope At The Edge Of Nuclear Existence. ScienceDaily . Retrieved June 4, 2025 from www.sciencedaily.com / releases / 2007 / 11 ...

GCSE; CCEA Double Award; Radioactive decay and half-life - CCEA Calculating isotopes. Radioactivity was first noticed by French physicist, Henri Becquerel, in 1896, when he observed that some ...

Radioactive elements on Earth are like geological watches. A radioactive isotope of carbon is used to date human civilizations, among other things, because we know that its half-life is precisely ...