the uranium decay chain - it's not just an alpha emitter!

[akacpkiller21]

I ran out of lube so I masturbated with pure uranium. Needless to say My penis is a needle.

[superbungabunga]

uranium 238 45,000,000,000 years to decay to half

[dontsubscribecomment]

what would happen it you could put uranium in a black hole in the univers ?

[NecipAksoy]

o my god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that guy is crazy that thing is very poison stuff if you stay there to long you will die or get cancer

[Ragnar1001]

Eine recht gute Probe mit einer gut ausgeprägten blasigen Oberfläche

[zetkaoo]

nice uraninite specimen :D is it from pribram, czech republic?

good video :)

[skateboy159]

does uranium melt like lead?

[KarbineKyle]

Heavy elements, like Am-241, for example, is mostly an α emitter, but can also undergo cluster decay, where Am-241 will emit a Si-34 nucleus once in a while. α particles are the most massive in eV (electron volts) but the least penetrating. ß- (electron) and ß+ (positron) is the most common form of decay. EC (Electron capture is very common too). This can excite and emit X-rays and γ-rays. X-rays are emitted from the valence electrons of the atom: γ-rays are emitted from the nucleus of the atom.

[MrPenguinPerson]

AAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't UNDERSTAND RADIOACTIVITY!!!

Can someone PLEASE help me out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dieselscience]

@MrPenguinPerson Well, what's your question(s) ?

[MrPenguinPerson]

@dieselscience Just explain as much as you can in a relatively simple way. (please)... :)

[dieselscience]

@MrPenguinPerson What you're seeing here is ore (mixture of minerals, shown by a really cute & smart German chick) containing Uranium. U atoms are so big that they sometimes spontaneously break apart and release energy and particles - called 'radioactivity.' There different forms of energy (gamma, x-ray, radio, light, heat) and different particles (protons, neutrons, nucleus from a helium atom='alpha particle') Start with basic chemistry and you'll understand it better.

[MrKaddan]

So take some pure Uranium and leave it for however long it takes, and in the end it is Lead?

[bionerd23]

@MrKaddan

in theory, yes. :P

if you wait one-hundred billion years, there will only be single uranium atoms left, and most of it will just be LEAD.

[TheCaptainLulz]

The biggest thing to worry about with uranium ore is the toxicity of the uranium. Uranium if ingested will do the same thing cadmium does to the kidneys, And they can die pretty quick. Its alos extremely toxic to the liver. Thats usually a far more real hazard than the radiation.

[bionerd23]

@TheCaptainLulz

true, but it also needs to be in a water-soluble compound for this... the pure pitchblende (UO2 etc.) will not do much by itself when ingested. same as mercury, for example. on the other hand, uranyl nitrate is extremely poisonous, for example.

[TheCaptainLulz]

@bionerd23 I have quite a bit of uranophane and its not soluable either. Problem is, some bacteria in the gut can tranform it into a soluable form, as with mercury. Those bacteria can eat anything, I swear it.

[windogmassey1]

Does the U236 take 4 billion and some years to go to lead or to Thorium? Thanks

[bionerd23]

@windogmassey1

no, U-238 has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. U-236 has a half life of over 20 million years. that means half of the isotope will have decayed to the daughter nuclide, Th-232, in that time. to estimate when half of the U-236 atoms will actually have decayed to Pb-208, you will have to take each daughter nuclide's half life into consideration, too, of course.

[windogmassey1]

@bionerd23 Ah right ok thanks very much

[mjjuna]

radioisotopes have a mean life, but do they have a standard deviation, and if so how would you measure it?

[bionerd23]

@mjjuna

as far as i know, it's completely impossible to tell.. a newly formed uranium 238 atom (given birth to by a supernova) could decay within less than a second, or it could live for 20 billion years...

[mjjuna]

@bionerd23 very true.

as you may well know, exponential decay is only applicable to very large collections, so if we dealt with, say, a few hundred atoms, the decay rule would seem incorrect. it probably is possible to work out the SD, but i think it would be theoretically and practically very difficult. i haven't found anything about it on the spider's web yet, but i'll keep looking. cheers.

[eLpeach]

i still rated this 5 stars so don't get peachy on me... im just trying to get a lonley scientist to make his own rogue video of pure 235, and i can wait to see the suit he waers or the thickness of shielding :)

[bionerd23]

why would he wear a suit and shielding? U-235 is just an alpha emitter with a long half-life, so it's not really dangerous, i'd handle it with bare hands... unless you have a supercritical amount of it, of course. ;)

[eLpeach]

that must be uranium 238 which is so aboundant, if this vid was of u235 mabye i would rate it 5 stars

[bionerd23]

lol, this is uranium ore, so U-NAT... you should know that it's 0.7% U-235 and almost 99.3% U-238. ;)

(and a tiny dash of other isotopes)

[1ownjoo2]

So uranium decays into Lead as its final product ?

Hmm i wonder if thats why lead can shield you from radiation ?

[bionerd23]

yeah, uranium 235, uranium 238, and thorium 234 all decay into lead (isotopes 206, 207, 208). lead shields radiation very well because it is very high dense / has a high mass number. uranium shields radiation even better, given the higher mass number; we use depleted uranium (very pure uranium 238 with only trace amounts of other isotopes as found in natural uranium like shown here) to shield our very dangerous iridium-192 irradiation treatment sources at work (they have 10 Curie activity each).

[KarbineKyle]

Awesome! I have a small booklet that has the decay chains of certain radioisotopes, and I wrote everything down just using a pencil. I like yours a lot though! You're chart is much better than mine! I write mine down on paper, but it's still good to have, esp. when studying certain isotopes. You have an incredible gift for experimenting with radioactive materials! It's truly amazing! I love it! Your videos are great! I love your collection too! Incredible! 5/5!!

[yahoorif]

is it not dangerous to keep a block of uranium ore in your house?

[kneecaps2000]

Great stuff!! Where did you get the uranium series chart?? I'd like to print one the same.

[bionerd23]

just use google image search, and type in "uranium decay chain". :)

[kneecaps2000]

many thanks!

[rclvb]

where did you buy the dosimeter???

[bionerd23]

at a local electronic's store called CONRAD. it's a GAMMA SCOUT, just google for it.

[wonzidu]

es besteht dennoch das risiko das du beispielsweise unfruchtbar wirst. Ohne Handschuhe würde ich keine unversiegelten Strahler anfassen.

[bionerd23]

lol, und wie sollen mich HANDSCHUHE bitteschoen vor UNFRUCHTBARKEIT schuetzen?! o_O

[wonzidu]

Handschuhe schützen dich vor Verschleppung radioaktiver Partikel, und somit auch vor oraler Aufnahme dieser. Vorausgesetzt du verwendest die Handschuhe für keine anderen Zwecke.

[bionerd23]

da ist haendewaschen auch ne prima masznahme. :)

[wonzidu]

damit kontaminierst du das Abwassersystem.....vergiss es einfach. :-P

[grenouil1970]

Bonjour,

Vous avez pas peur davoir le cancer avec vos produits radioactive ??

Merci beaucoup et bonne journée

[bionerd23]

non, car ce n'est pas beaucoup de rayonnement. pas asse'à être un risque vrai pour le cancer, quoi qu'il en soit.

[mkrubsack]

Nice explanation.

[taxidrivermilano]

Brava Complimenti!!!

[AScannerClearly]

(Reply to others), there is no loss of mass associated with gamma ray emissions; mass loss only occurs during alpha/beta decay or fission/fusion events. However sometimes energy left over from the decay will leave the nucleus in an unstable state where it's still storing some energy which is spontaneously released as a gamma ray, but by then there's no longer any change in mass. Isotopes like Tc-99m are called metastable, or also isomers. Isotopes like Po-210 emit no gamma rays at all, just FYI.

[bionerd23]

thanks, great explanation! :)

i think he meant if e.g. the beta particle's energy emitted by the parent nucleus is in relation to the gamma ray emitted by the daughter nucleus; see below, where i replied. maybe you know the answer to this? =)

[wowggscrub]

what I mean is that when atoms lose mass through decay , fission , fusion the reulting mass of light gamma and heat is proportional to the amount of mass that is lost , i dont know what you mean by excited state ill read on wiki.

[TheCynicalAtheist]

Wasnt suggesting mass and g rays were directly related or that gamma emissions were associated with loss of mass, worded it badly, i was wondering if the gamma emissions were related to how much of an excited state the atom nucleus was in as a result of a previous emission of an alpha or beta particle.

I know this sounds stupid but lets say an unstable atom has an energy of 1 to lose, if say 0.6 of that energy is lost via alpha decay, is the remaining energy 0.4 emited as a gamma emission.

[Sprenkmister]

hmm..... i feel stupidder than i usually feel right know......i don't think i understood more than 2 words in this whole video. You are very knowledgable. kudos

[bionerd23]

sorry about that... well, if you have any questions, feel free to ask - but i suppose for the basics, wikipedia and stuff will be of more help.

[wowggscrub]

doesnt the nuclide give off gamma based on the differnce of mass explained through E=mc2>?

[TheCynicalAtheist]

Not quite sure what you mean there, im guessing you mean is the eV of the gamma emisson proportional to the amount of mass lost from the atom in the particle decay.

I would imagine so, conservation of energy and all, but you know i have no idea, i would love to know that answer.

I allways thought gamma emissions were because an atoms nucelus was excited due to particle decay, and the atom was excited so had to transfer this energy somehow.

[TheCynicalAtheist]

There are isotopes that only give off gamma rays, like the tc99m which BN had injected for her scintography, this kind of confused me for a while, but i figure the atom nucleus is just in some kind of excited wobble and only gives its energy out as gamma rays untill it finally changes again to a different isotope as it ejects particles.

I know absolutely nothing about this type of thing though, im sure somebody will know the answer.

[wowggscrub]

tc99m has A short half-life and that must mean that the atom falls to peices pretty rapidly meaning loss of mass ergo gamma radiaton .

[bionerd23]

the Tc99 atom - or more it's metastable state - does not "fall to pieces". it doesnt even decay; it only emits a gamma ray.

a gamma ray emission occurs if the excitation energy is lower than the coulomb forces holding the atom together. if the excitation energy is higher than the coloumb forces - e.g. when the parameters for decay are met in the atom, and it decays - an actual change in the nucleus occurs, such as an alpha decay.

[bionerd23]

...but very good question if the gamma ray emitted by the daughter nucleus is actually in relation in e.g. to the energy of the beta particle emitted by the mother nuclide as it decayed - i suppose that was your question - but i have to admit that i currently dont know this myself! i will try and find out about it.

[TheCynicalAtheist]

Yeah, thats basically exactly what i was wondering if the other guy was asking.

I really dont know anything about this kind of thing, but yourself, a scanner clearly, pololnium and some other guys on here are teaching me loads.

I really appreciate the vids you guys do!

[sciencoking]

Heheh, yea, if it was, we wouldn´t have to worry about chuck-norris-quantums going through 10 cm of lead...

[bionerd23]

ROFL @ chuck-norris-quantums! ^_^

epic win!

[cool70200]

You're very smart.

Are you a professor in a university?

Can you do some, chemistry lecture videos?

[bionerd23]

thanks, but i'm not even a STUDENT at a university. o_O

i'm doing all this for a hobby, i'm just a nerd. :P

about the chemistry lecture videos... well, depends if i have the required ingredients. feel free to suggest stuff for my videos, though! i just cannot promise you that i can easily do them, as some stuff is impossible at home / too expensive / etc..

...but you could e.g. check out the youtube channels from PERIODICVIDEOS or NURDRAGE - they do awesome chemistry stuff!

[int3rl0per]

How about trying to construct a nuclear battery and actually have it power something? :)

[bionerd23]

i dont have sufficient amounts of a suitable short-lived radioisotope for that. :(

[polonium9]

amazing video!! i love the look of the pitchblende since you can tell a person "hey, its hematite" and they wont care. you say "hey its uraninite which means its radioactive!!" they will freak and scream and run like hell!! great explaining and chart(s), i have the same!

[bionerd23]

thank you! =)

and yeah, radiophobia is really silly... there should be a psychotherapy for it, like for other phobias, too! o_O

then again, it can be funny as well... you can sometimes just say "OH MY! THERE'S AN ATOM!", and people will look up to the sky and scream in panic, thinking world war III has started and a nuclear bomb will hit them. ^_^

*shakes head*

admittably, this extremely dull reaction is rather rare, but the association ATOM = DEATH is pretty common. -_-

[polonium9]

it is fun to freak out old people!!

[shadowthewedgehog]

today in our school our science teacher was demonstrating radioactivity. I have forgotten what the element was but i do remember him telling us the precautions he had to take. About 5 layers of lead and a steel locker.

[bionerd23]

lol, what the.... was he handling a big plutonium pellet? o_O

it really depends on the half time vs. the amount of atoms of the radionuclide that are present, but if he had to take precautions like that, it must've been a large amount of a pretty radioactive substance.

[shadowthewedgehog]

well it was an alpha beta and gamma emitter, but its probably down to UK laws sayin we arnt allowed within a metre of it

[bionerd23]

weird... as usual, the amount determines the poison. if i'd give you a tiny mini-crumb of pitchblende - an alpha, beta and gamma emitter - you'd hardly be able to measure it, as the mother nuclide's half time is so damn high. :)

[TheCynicalAtheist]

Probably just the backwards UK laws.

On School/College campuses they have to have somebody in charge of the isotopes and ores they have in storage, normally a lab tech.

Its funny because most of them are so non radioactive they are more dangerous as heavy metals IMO.

I think you have to be 18+ and sign a consent form to handle radioactive minerals/metals.

Big load of fuss over nothing, a simple metal money box with some lead inside and some radiation stickers on would surfice i think, lol.

[TheCynicalAtheist]

Funny really.

Heres some 18 MOLAR acid kids, but you cant stand within 4ft of this breadcrumb size peice of pitchblend thats inside a plastic box!

[bionerd23]

yeah, we have the same here, too - they're called "strahlenschutzbeauftrage", "radiation protection delegates"... but i dont know if the lessons are actually that ridiculous, with students having to be far away from a completely harmless source... i've never experienced a demonstration of a radionuclide in school. -_-