Friday, February 4, 2011

Isotopes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdtt3LsodAQ short intro<<
What is an isotopes?
Isotopes are atom than have the same atomic number but different atomic mass. This means that the neutron number is not that same as the original atom. example, Hydrogen has 1 proton and 1 electron(number of proton=number of electron) and 0 neutron. it is called hydrogen-1(protium). there is also hydrogen-2(deuterium) and hydrogen-3(tritium). Deuterium has 1 neutron. Tritium has 2 neutrons.

The number of neutrons affect only the physical properties.
some isotopes has names. okay.. one more example from my own contextual knowledge.
carbon-12 the normal one carbon-13 gained 1 extra neutron and carbon-14 gained 2 extra neutron.

carbon-14 is used to find out the age of an ancient object. the more reactive it is the older the object is. It is called radiocarbon dating.(can be found in your textbook)

carbon-13 is used to find out the wavelength of noises underwater.
both of this are natural. there are man-made isotopes too. beware that carbon-14 is highly radioactive.

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