Decay Simulator: Radium-201
General data
| Element name | Radium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Ra |
| Atomic number Z | 88 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Radium-201 (Ra-201) |
| Neutron number N | 113 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 201 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Radium-201: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 10 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Radium-201 10 ms
- Radon-197 55 ms
- Polonium-193 410 ms
- Lead-189 39 s
- Thallium-189 2.3 min · 99.6%
- Mercury-189 8.0 min · 99.6%
- Gold-189 28.7 min · 99.6%
- Platinum-189 10.89 h · 99.6%
- Iridium-189 13.2 d · 99.6%
- Osmium-189 stable · 99.6%
- Mercury-185 48.2 s · 0.4%
- Gold-185 4.3 min · 0.37%
- Platinum-185 70.9 min · 0.37%
- Iridium-185 14.4 h · 0.37%
- Osmium-185 92.95 d · 0.37%
- Rhenium-185 stable · 0.37%
- Platinum-181 52.0 s · 0.024%
- Iridium-181 4.90 min · 0.025%
- Osmium-181 106 min · 0.025%
- Rhenium-181 20.0 h · 0.025%
- Tungsten-181 120.96 d · 0.025%
- Tantalum-181 stable · 0.025%
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 - 5.
- Osmium-177 3.0 min · 1.8×10⁻⁵%
- Rhenium-177 14 min · 1.8×10⁻⁵%
- Tungsten-177 132 min · 1.8×10⁻⁵%
- Tantalum-177 56.56 h · 1.8×10⁻⁵%
- Hafnium-177 stable · 1.8×10⁻⁵%
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