Radioactivity & Isotopes

Radioactivity

Normally if we see the yellow symbol resembling a clover to think of something radioactive core and those who think so is because they know theradioactivity. The trevol is used to mark the radioactive materials.

The neutrons and protons that make up the nuclei and other particles that come close enough tothem are governed by different interactions.

The strong nuclear force, not seen in the familiar microscopic scale, is the most powerful force subatomicdistances.

The electrostatic force is almost always significant, and in the case of beta decay, the weak nuclear force is also involved.

The interaction of theseforces produces a number of phenomena in which energy can released in a rearrangement of the particles in the nucleus or the change of a particle in others.

Thereorganization is hindered with energy, so it does not happen immediately.

The radioactivity was first discovered in 1896 by the French scientist Henry Becquerel.Isotopes

Atomic nuclei consist of protons and neutrons bound together by the residual strong force. Because protons are positively charged, they repel eachother. Neutrons, which are electrically neutral, stabilize the nucleus in two ways.

Their copresence pushes protons slightly apart, reducing the electrostaticrepulsion between the protons, and they exert the attractive nuclear force on each other and on protons.

For this reason, one or more neutrons are necessary for two ormore protons to be bound into a nucleus. As the number of protons increases, so does the ratio of neutrons to protons necessary to ensure a stable nucleus.