Decay Simulator: Gold-183
General data
| Element name | Gold |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Au |
| Atomic number Z | 79 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Gold-183 (Au-183) |
| Neutron number N | 104 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 183 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Gold-183: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 42.8 s |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Gold-183 42.8 s
- Platinum-183 6.5 min · 99.5%
- Iridium-183 58 min · 99.4%
- Osmium-183 13.0 h · 99.4%
- Rhenium-183 70.0 d · 99.4%
- Tungsten-183 stable · 99.4%
- Iridium-179 79 s · 0.55%
- Osmium-179 6.3 min · 0.56%
- Rhenium-179 19.5 min · 0.56%
- Tungsten-179 37.05 min · 0.56%
- Tantalum-179 1.82 a · 0.56%
- Hafnium-179 stable · 0.56%
How to read the simulation
Grid: each pixel is one atom of the starting isotope. When an atom decays, the pixel takes the colour of the decay product - in decay series mode the product can decay further. The moment each atom decays is random, but the probability follows from the half-life, so after one T½ about half of the atoms remain, after two - about a quarter.
Chart N(t): what percentage of the sample atoms each nuclide makes up at a given moment. The line of the starting isotope falls (by half after each T½), the lines of stable products rise, and those of short-lived ones first rise, then fall.
Chart A(t): activity, i.e. the number of decays per second (becquerel, Bq). It depends on the number of atoms and on how fast they decay: for the same number of atoms, the shorter the T½, the higher the activity.
Simulation time runs faster (or slower) than real time - the time scale slider sets the multiplier. This way you can watch the decay of isotopes that live from fractions of a second to billions of years.
Well-known isotopes
- H-3 - Tritium - glowing watch hands, nuclear fusion fuel.
- C-14 - Radiocarbon dating.
- K-40 - Natural radioactivity - in bananas and in our bodies.
- Co-60 - Radiotherapy and radiation sterilization.
- I-131 - Thyroid treatment; Chernobyl fallout.
- Cs-137 - Long-lasting contamination after Chernobyl and Fukushima.
- Rn-222 - Radon in basements and mines.
- Ra-226 - The longest-lived isotope of radium - the element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898.
- U-235 - Nuclear power plant fuel; start of the actinium series.
- U-238 - Age of the Earth; start of the uranium series.
- Pu-238 - Power source for space probes (Voyager, Curiosity rover).
- Am-241 - Ionization smoke detectors.
Data sources
- NNDC Wallet Cards 2023 - Data as of 15 October 2024 - licence: Public domain