Decay Simulator: Lawrencium-260
General data
| Element name | Lawrencium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Lr |
| Atomic number Z | 103 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Lawrencium-260 (Lr-260) |
| Neutron number N | 157 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 260 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Lawrencium-260: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 3.0 min |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Lawrencium-260 3.0 min
- Mendelevium-256 77.7 min · 60.0%
- Fermium-256 157.1 min · 54.3%
- Nobelium-260 107 ms · 40.0%
- Einsteinium-252 471.7 d · 5.7%
- Californium-252 2.647 a · 55.6%
- Curium-248 3.48×10⁵ a · 55.6%
- Plutonium-244 8.13×10⁷ a · 55.6%
- Uranium-240 14.1 h · 55.6%
- Neptunium-240 61.9 min · 55.6%
- Plutonium-240 6562 a · 55.6%
- Uranium-236 2.343×10⁷ a · 55.6%
- Thorium-232 1.407×10¹⁰ a · 55.6%
- Radium-228 5.75 a · 55.6%
- Actinium-228 6.15 h · 55.6%
- Thorium-228 1.9116 a · 55.6%
- Radium-224 3.6313 d · 55.6%
- Radon-220 55.6 s · 55.6%
- Polonium-216 144.0 ms · 55.6%
- Lead-212 10.628 h · 55.6%
- Bismuth-212 60.55 min · 55.6%
- Polonium-212 295.0 ns · 35.6%
- Thallium-208 3.053 min · 20.0%
- Lead-208 stable · 55.6%
- Berkelium-248 > 9 a · 4.4%
Rare branches (below 0.01%)
Rare branches are transformations that occur in fewer than 0.01% of decays, e.g. double beta decay or cluster emission. The nuclides they produce are practically absent from a sample, so they are hidden by default to keep the main path clear. In this series: branches - 1, nuclides - 6.
- Lead-210 22.20 a · 2.2×10⁻⁹%
- Bismuth-210 5.012 d · 2.2×10⁻⁹%
- Polonium-210 138.378 d · 2.2×10⁻⁹%
- Mercury-206 8.32 min · 4.2×10⁻¹⁷%
- Thallium-206 4.202 min · 3.0×10⁻¹⁵%
- Lead-206 stable · 2.2×10⁻⁹%
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