Annie Termaat and Christopher Talbot Solutions for Chapter: What's Inside the Nucleus?, Exercise 5: ACTIVITY: Evaluating changes in unstable isotopes

List examples of radioactive decay products and their formulas.

Formulate balanced nuclear equations to describe the given example of radioactive decay:

${}^{14}\mathrm{C}$ is used for carbon dating and undergoes beta decay

Formulate balanced nuclear equations to describe the given example of radioactive decay:

Radium-221 is used in industrial radiography and undergoes alpha decay.

Formulate balanced nuclear equations to describe the given example of radioactive decay:

Iodine-131 and astatine -211 have medical uses in the treatment of cancer, particularly in the thyroid. Each undergoes beta negative decay.

Formulate balanced nuclear equations to describe the given example of radioactive decay:

${}^{60}\mathrm{Co}$ is used in external beam radiation therapy for treating cancer. It undergoes beta negative decay which is accompanied by the emission of gamma rays.

Formulate balanced nuclear equations to describe the given example of radioactive decay:

${}^{210}\mathrm{Po}$ is used as a power source in unmanned spacecraft, including new horizons (the probe that visited Pluto in 2015). It undergoes alpha decay.

Formulate the radioactive decay series ( in which the $\mathrm{\alpha } \mathrm{and} \mathrm{\beta }$ indicate the type of decay) to identify the nuclides X, Y and Z.

${}_{90}{}^{232}\mathrm{Th} - \mathrm{\alpha } \to \mathrm{X} -\mathrm{\beta } \to \mathrm{Y} -\mathrm{\beta } \to \mathrm{Z} - \mathrm{\alpha } \to {}_{88}{}^{224}\mathrm{Ra}$