Decay Simulator: Potassium-52
General data
| Element name | Potassium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | K |
| Atomic number Z | 19 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Potassium-52 (K-52) |
| Neutron number N | 33 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 52 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Potassium-52: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 110 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Potassium-52 110 ms
- Calcium-51 10.0 s · 74.0%
- Calcium-52 4.6 s · 23.7%
- Scandium-51 12.5 s · 74.5%
- Titanium-51 5.756 min · 74.5%
- Vanadium-51 stable · 74.5%
- Scandium-52 8.2 s · 23.2%
- Titanium-52 1.7 min · 23.2%
- Vanadium-52 3.743 min · 23.2%
- Chromium-52 stable · 23.2%
- Calcium-50 13.45 s · 2.3%
- Scandium-50 102.5 s · 2.3%
- Titanium-50 stable · 2.3%
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