Radiation

Radiation comes in two types - electromagnetic (ionizing) and nuclear.

Electromagnetic Radiation
Electromagnetic Radiation includes light, microwaves, radio waves, x-rays, etc.

The most potentially dangerous types of electromagnetic radiation are the ones with higher
energy. (Ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays).
They are dangerous because they can ionise particles (strip electrons), including particles
contained in our DNA. This can lead to serious health issues, to say the least.

This is called ionizing radiation.

Nuclear Radiation
There are three types of "radiation" caused in the nucleus of an atom. We will see that this
radiation can be electromagnetic (gamma radiation), or the emission of actual particles.

Alpha decay
In alpha decay (⍺) an unstable nucleus ejects 2 neutrons and 2 protons. This happens in very
large nucleuses and was the first type of nuclear radiation to be discovered (because the
emitted particle is quite large).

We will note that 2 neutrons and 2 protons are the nucleus of a helium atom He2+. Because of
the lack of electrons in this helium it is an ionizing and dangerous radiation.

Luckily, this radiation doesn't travel very far before becoming inert, and can't penetrate materials
very well.

When an atom does alpha decay it becomes a new

atom! (Change in number of protons).
We can write an equation for alpha radiation as follow:

One example being:

Beta Decay
In Beta decay we observe a neutron TRANSFORMING into a proton. It releases an electron in
the process, as well as a new particle called an anti-neutrino. (Neutrinos are very small
particles, 1/10000000 the mass of an electron, and don't normally affect matter - hard to detect!)

Ceci donne aussi une équation.

We can use either the beta symbol "β" or "e" to indicate the electron being released..

Since electrons have a charge of -1, this counts as ionizing radiation. It is LESS ionizing than
alpha radiation, but penetrates further.
Gamma decay
Sometimes, similarly to electrons, the nucleus can be in an excited state. This usually happens
after another type of decay that affected the composition of the nucleus.

To return to its rest state, the nucleus releases electromagnetic energy in the gamma range.

The equation is straightforward.

Gamma radiation is very high energy electromagnetic energy, and so can ionize particles by
making their electrons detach. This makes it a dangerous radiation (less than the others), that
can penetrate a significant amount of material.
Half-Life
Since unstable (generally meaning "large") atoms change their composition, it is natural to
wonder - how quickly does this process happen?

We note that it is impossible to determine exactly when a specific atom will undergo decay, but
we do know the probability of that atom decaying after a set period of time. This would be a
frustrating exercise of isolating an individual atom and watching and waiting (millions of
years??) for it to decay.

HOWEVER, with a large number of atoms (remember, a single mol of material has 6x1023
particles) we can start determining timelines with statistical calculations.

https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/cheerpj/nuclear-physics/latest/nuclear-physics.html?simulation=a
lpha-decay

We measure the decay time with "half-life". This is the time it takes to reduce the mass of the
radioactive material by 50%. After 1 half-life there remains 50%. After 2 half-lives 25%, then
12.5, 6.25, etc.

Assuming we have a sample of 100g (for math reasons!) and a half life of 5 years… we can
observe the following curve.

Interesting note - even with a half-life of 4.5 billion years, 1kg of uranium releases 3 million
alpha particles per second.
Applications - radio(active/metric/isotope) dating
Carbon-14 specific: There is a relatively consistent percentage of carbon-14 in the world. When
an organism is alive (since all life is based on carbon) it absorbs this carbon-14. Organisms
then, when they die, have this percentage of carbon-14 in their body.

Carbon-14 is radioactive (unstable). It decays to form nitrogen. By comparing the percentages

of carbon-14 in the atmosphere, and in a sample of a dead organism, we can calculate how
many carbon-14 half-lives have passed. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years (+/- 40 years).

How Does Radiocarbon Dating Work? - Instant Egghead #28

How To Date A Planet
https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/earth-sciences/what-is-radiometric-dating/