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Radioisotopes Used By Using Carbon Dating Archaeologic Species

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Radioisotopes
What are isotopes?
Isotopes are similar to elements in that they need the same formation as they do. Isotopes need a nucleus made of protons and neutrons and a surrounding shell containing electrons. But what separates Isotopes from elements is the fact that they have the same number of protons as an electron but have a different number of neutrons. As the atomic number is the mass is the number of protons and the atomic mass is the weight of protons and neutrons we can therefore say they have the same atomic number as an element but have different mass numbers. For example Aericium 241 is an isotope we se used in evry day common objects such as smoke detectors.
How are isotopes used in dating Archaeologic species?’
A way archaeologists can determine how old something is by using Carbon Dating. When an archaeologists wants to find out how old a certain object may be they look for specific isotopes in the object as it can give them an estimate of how old they object would be. We know that every isotope has a specific life span assigned to them. Such as Americium 241 it has a half-life of 432 years therefor if an archaeologists found an object with Americium 241 in it they would know the object is about 432 years old. For more information on carbon dating …show more content…

A Radioactive isotopes undergo a process of “radioactive Decay” there are three types of decay the first being Alpha, beta and Gamma Radiation. Each form of radioactive decay is different; Alpha radiation is produced by an atom in the form of two protons and two neutrons, and is often called a Helium atom, even though it does not have the properties of Helium. Throughout the beta decay process, an electron is released from the atom. Whereas Gamma radiation, is different in the way that it is not a particle, but pure energy. Although Alpha and Beta both consist of different levels of gamma

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