Decay Simulator: Polonium-194
General data
| Element name | Polonium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Po |
| Atomic number Z | 84 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Polonium-194 (Po-194) |
| Neutron number N | 110 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 194 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Polonium-194: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 392 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Polonium-194 392 ms
- Lead-190 71 s · 93.0%
- Bismuth-194 100 s · 7.0%
- Thallium-190 2.8 min · 92.7%
- Lead-194 10.7 min · 7.0%
- Mercury-190 20.0 min · 92.7%
- Gold-190 42.8 min · 92.7%
- Platinum-190 4.90×10¹¹ a · 92.7%
- Thallium-194 33.3 min · 7.0%
- Mercury-194 450 a · 7.0%
- Gold-194 38.06 h · 7.0%
- Platinum-194 stable · 7.0%
- Mercury-186 1.38 min · 0.37%
- Gold-186 10.7 min · 0.37%
- Platinum-186 2.08 h · 0.37%
- Iridium-186 16.64 h · 0.37%
- Osmium-186 2.0×10¹⁵ a · 93.0%
- Tungsten-182 stable · 93.0%
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 - 3, nuclides - 9.
- Platinum-182 2.7 min · 6.0×10⁻⁵%
- Iridium-182 15 min · 6.2×10⁻⁵%
- Osmium-182 22.04 h · 6.3×10⁻⁵%
- Rhenium-182 64.2 h · 6.3×10⁻⁵%
- Osmium-178 5.0 min · 2.3×10⁻⁸%
- Rhenium-178 13.2 min · 2.3×10⁻⁸%
- Tungsten-178 21.6 d · 2.3×10⁻⁸%
- Tantalum-178 2.41 h · 2.3×10⁻⁸%
- Hafnium-178 stable · 2.3×10⁻⁸%
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