Atoms: Atom is the smallest component of an element having the chemical property. Atoms are consisted of a nucleus containing protons and neutrons and one or more electron surrounding the nucleus.
Isotopes: Isotopes is an atom that have the same number of proton and electron but different number of neutron.
Example of Isotopes: We all know that isotopes have the same number of atomic number in that particular atom but different number of mass number that was caused by the changes of the neutron particles.
Example of carbon isotopes:
These are the example of the carbon isotopes. Each of them share the same number of atomic number which is 6 but different number of mass numbers which are 12, 13 and 14.
Some Isotopes are radioactive!!
A carbon - 14 atom behaves in a strange way. It is radioactive and its nucleus is unstable because it have way too many neutron. In some amount of time the nucleus will decays or breakdown, giving out radiation in the form of rays and tiny particles as well as a large amount of energy.
How fast do radioisotopes decay?
Radioisotopes decay at random. We would not know when carbon 14 will decay. But we do know how long for half the radioisotopes in a sample to decay. This is called the half-life. The half-life for carbon-14 is 5730 years. So if you have 100 carbon-14 atoms, 50 of them will have decayed 5730 years from now.
Finding Earth's age using radioisotopes:
We all know that earth had been there for 4.54 billion years. Is it true that earth had been living for 4,54 billion years? or is it only been living for some thousands years. There are some proof that says that earth had been exist for 10000 years or so because the people on that time had wrote their journey or invention. The bible is one of the written example of those old days. But no one had ever wrote or leave any things or invention back in the million years. There are some proof such as the skeleton of dinosaurs that had been decayed. The radioisotopes will help to trace back on how long this bones had been living. Here are some proof on how radioisotopes proof that earth had been living for billion years. The age of the earth had been determine by radiometric age dating of meteorite material and other old stuffs. Using the radioisotopes we could find the half-life of that particular isotope atom. For example like the small zircon in Jack Hills in west Australia had aged for more than 4billion years. The oldest known constituents within the meteorite are 4.567 billion years old. That is how the radioisotopes help to discover how old something is, including us. To find a mummified Egyptian we must first know that our body are made out of a lot of carbon atoms and a tiny percentage of these carbon are carbon-14 which is an isotopes. When a living atoms died the atoms did not take in anymore new carbon atoms but the remnant of the carbon 14 atoms will eventually decays over time and we can measure the faint radiation from them.
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