There are about 1700 isotopes among the elements, only 300 of them are stable and 
       the rest are radioactive. Among those 1400, 40 of them are found in nature, usually from 
       elements with atomic numbers of 82 or higher. In this section, we are going to investigate 
       the decay process of alpha, beta and gamma radiations as well as the half-lives of 
       radioisotopes.

 radioactive decay Before we start to investigate how a radioisotope decay, we need to 
                                       know what it is and why does it emit radiation first, so click here to 
                                       check this out! 
 decay equationAlpha decay results in emission of helium nucleus, whereas beta decay 
                                       results in emission of electrons and gamma emission involves emission 
                                       of high energy electromagnetic wave. Click to have more information.
 half-lifeWhat is a half-life? How can we calculater it? Find out the answers here.
| discovery | a.b.g | decay | application | nuclear energy | | hazard | background | interactive | Feedback (C)1999 ThinkQuest Team 27954 | Search |