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Q: Why is radioactive decay only useful for the first 8 half lives of any radioactive substance?
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What kinetics does radioactive decay obey?

First order


Why radioactive decay is always first order reaction?

This is because only one isotope decay.


What is the difference between Chemical kinetics vs Chemical decay?

Chemical decay, also known as radioactive decay, is a process that occurs naturally (usually in isotopes or unstable substances) Chemical Kinetics is one of the ways you can analyze radioactive decay. Although it should be noted that radioactive decay undergoes first order decay when using Chemical Kinetics.


What decays first duriing radioactive decay?

No, radioactive decay is not a chemical reaction. Radioactive decay is a type of change in the nucleus of an atom that results from instability in that nucleus. And that is a nuclear reaction rather than a chemical one.


If a certain radioactive substance has a half life of one year how many atoms of the substance remain after 5 years if there are initially 5000 such atoms?

Half life refers to the time required for the change (decay) of a radioactive nucleus to a lighter, possibly more stable, nucleus.Starting with 5,000 radioactive atoms, at the end of first year, half would have decayed leaving 2,500. Following the same pattern, the end of the second year would see only 1,250. By the end of year 5, there would be just 156 radioactive atoms.


What is a radioactive element's half-life?

The time it takes for a half of the element to decay. In Example: Technetium-99 has a half life of 6 hours. If you begin with a sample of 100g, then after 6 hours you will have 50 grams, at 12 hours you will have 25 grams and so on; however it will NEVER reach 0 (it will remain in exponentially small ammounts because of the asymptote in the graph). This specific exponential decay is shown by the equation y=100(0.5)((1/6)x)


What is the longest radioactive halflife?

First, it isn't very accurate to talk about a radioactive "element"; you should talk about radioactive isotopes. Different isotopes of the same element can have very different behavior in this sense. For example, hydrogen-1 and hydrogen-2 are stable, while hydrogen-3 is not (half-life about 19 years).Individual atoms, in a radioactive isotope, will decay at a random moment. The half-life refers to how long it takes for half of the atoms in a given sample to decay (and convert to some other type of isotope).


What follows radioactive decay?

The final product is a stable isotope, but what it is depends on the decay. The intermediate steps constitute what is called a decay chain. For example, one well known decay chain is that of thorium-232, which goes through a series of radioactive isotopes decaying each to the next. The final product is lead-208, which stops the process since it is stable and does not decay further. Other decay chains produce other results. Sometimes the first decay produces a stable result, as in the case of tritium, which decays to helium-3.


What is the decay element of uranium?

It is not yet discovered since all of the uranium isotopes are having half life for several millions of years. We would be able to find it after atleast 700 millions of years.


How do geologists measure the precise age of earth?

There are a few ways. First they use uranium 235 to date the oldest rocks. U 235 is radioactive so it has a half life that can be meaured.


Compare and contrast between relative and radioactive dating?

First of all, this is not a relationship question. Radioactive dating is taking an element from a sample with a known rate of decay and invert the equation to find the time(date) from which it started to decay. Relative dating determines the period of time from which an object come from based on technology, soil, anthropology, etc.


What was thought to have been a source of heat when Earth first formed?

1.decay of radioactive isotopes 2.bombardment by meteorites 3.compression by overlying materials