CHAPTER HEAD HOME TABLE OF CONTENTS GLOSSARY APPENDIX RADIOACTIVITY RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION COMMON RADIATION TRADITIONALLY CLASSIFIED ALPHA BETA GAMMA NUCLEAR RADIATION EMISSION PROTONS NEUTRONS SPONTANEOUS FISSION MASSIVE VAST MAJORITY ALMOST ALL THE HISTORY OF STABLE ISOTOPES NATURALLY OCCURRING RADIOISOTOPES THOUSANDS MADE IN THE LABORATORY RADIOACTIVE DECAY CHANGE NUCLEUS THE PRODUCT GREATER NUCLEAR BINDING ENERGY INITIAL THE DIFFERENCE BINDING ENERGY BEFORE AND AFTER DETERMINES ENERGETICALLY POSSIBLE APPEARS KINETIC ENERGY REST MASS ENERGY THE DECAY THE CHART NUCLIDES ABOVE PLOT FUNCTION PROTON NUMBER NEUTRON NUMBER STABLE NUCLEI DECAY COMPARISON TOWARD CHANGING ELSE SHEDDING UNSTABLE CASE EXCESS ENERGY OR N NUCLEAR DECAY MUST SATISFY CONSERVATION LAWS MEANING VALUE CONSERVED QUANTITY TAKING ACCOUNT EQUAL QUANTITY CONSERVED QUANTITIES TOTAL ENERGY ELECTRIC CHARGE LINEAR NUMBER LEPTON NUMBER POSITRONS ANTIPARTICLES COUNTING COUNTING NUMBERS CURVE THE POINTS DO NOT FALL STATISTICAL PROBABILITY PARTICULAR UNDERGO FIXED LENGTH DEPEND THE AGE HOW IT EXACT LIFETIME CANNOT MEAN SAMPLE ISOTOPE PREDICTED DETERMINING MEASURE HOW LONG TAKES THE ORIGINAL HALF WAIT LEAVING TOTAL SO ON MEASURED TINY FRACTIONS SECONDS INTERVAL PROPORTIONAL THE SAMPLE THIS CONDITION LEADS SHOWING ITSELF TIME T ORIGINAL MEAN LIFETIME PARENT ALPHA DECAY BETA DECAY GAMMA DECAY THE DISCOVERY OF NATURE UNITS RESOURCES LAST WEBMASTER