Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Atoms & ionising
radiation
- Isotopes are different
forms of the same
element
- Isotopes are atoms with
same number of protons but
different number of neutrons
- Hence the same atomic
number but different
mass numbers
- Atomic number is
the atoms number
of protons
- Mass number is the
atoms' protons +
neutrons
- Isotope example - carbon
12 & carbon 14:
- Most elements have
different isotopes
but usually there's
only one or two
stable ones
- The other isotopes
tend to be radioactive
so decay into other
elements and give out
radiation
- Radioactivity is a
random process
- Radioactive substances give out
radiation from their atoms nuclei
- no matter what's done to them
- This process is entirely random and
means if you have 1000 unstable nuclei
you don't know when a single one will
decay and neither can you cause a decay
- Totally unaffected by
physical conditions such as
temperature or any sort of
chemical bonding etc
- Radioactive substances
give out one or more of
the three types of
radiation(alpha, beta
or gamma)
- Background radiation -
Radiation that's always
present, all around us comes from:
- Radioactivity of naturally
unstable isotopes - in the
air, in food and in rocks
under are feet; literally all
around us
- Radiation from space,
known as cosmic rays
these mostly come
from the sun
- Radiation due to man-made
sources E.G fallout from nuclear
weapon testing, nuclear
accidents(chernobyl) or dumped
nuclear waste