What is isotope

For example, carbon has six protons and is atomic number 6. Carbon occurs naturally in three isotopes: carbon 12, which has 6 neutrons plus 6 protons equals 12 , carbon 13, which has 7 neutrons, and carbon 14, which has 8 neutrons.

Every element has its own number of isotopes. Carbon is stable, meaning it never undergoes radioactive decay. Carbon is unstable and undergoes radioactive decay with a half-life of about 5, years meaning that half of the material will be gone after 5, years. Isotopes have unique properties, and these properties make them useful in diagnostics and treatment applications.

The next step was to test whether Arafat had actually ingested or inhaled a quantity of the suspect isotope. One of the isotope s of fission products, when fuel melts, is an iodine isotope , and it goes in your body through your thyroid. All we've been able to find is some strange isotope but we don't know how to reproduce it or synthesize it. Well, heavy water is made of one atom of oxygen plus two atoms of deuterium, which is the first isotope of hydrogen.

Why nail the "power metal" down to an isotope of gold with an atomic weight of ? There must be another one in either wing, for the isotope plant and the cartridge-case plant. An isotope is just a different variety of the ordinary kind of atom in each element. In physics , different forms of the same element , with nuclei that have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. Isotopes are distinguished from each other by giving the combined number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus.

Definition of isotope. First Known Use of isotope , in the meaning defined at sense 1. Learn More About isotope. Time Traveler for isotope The first known use of isotope was in See more words from the same year. Style: MLA. English Language Learners Definition of isotope. Medical Definition of isotope. Get Word of the Day daily email! Carbon dioxide produced in this way diffuses in the atmosphere, is dissolved in the ocean, and is incorporated by plants via photosynthesis.

Animals eat the plants and, ultimately, the radiocarbon is distributed throughout the biosphere. In living organisms, the relative amount of 14 C in their body is approximately equal to the concentration of 14 C in the atmosphere. When an organism dies, it is no longer ingesting 14 C, so the ratio between 14 C and 12 C will decline as 14 C gradually decays back to 14 N.

This slow process, which is called beta decay, releases energy through the emission of electrons from the nucleus or positrons.

After approximately 5, years, half of the starting concentration of 14 C will have been converted back to 14 N. This is referred to as its half-life, or the time it takes for half of the original concentration of an isotope to decay back to its more stable form. Because the half-life of 14 C is long, it is used to date formerly-living objects such as old bones or wood.

Comparing the ratio of the 14 C concentration found in an object to the amount of 14 C in the atmosphere, the amount of the isotope that has not yet decayed can be determined. On the basis of this amount, the age of the material can be accurately calculated, as long as the material is believed to be less than 50, years old.