20.4 Kinetics of Nuclear Decay | General Chemistry

Chad provides a comprehensive lesson on the Kinetics of Nuclear Decay including Radiocarbon Dating. Spontaneous nuclear decay is a first order process and follows the first order integrated rate law. Radioactive nuclei are characterized by their half life, the time it takes for half a sample to decay. The half life can be used as the basis for kinetics calculations and the amount of radioactive substance may be looked at in terms of mass, percent of initial amount, fraction of initial amount, or activity.

Radioactive dating is a special application of the kinetics of nuclear decay. Specifically, radiocarbon dating can be used to date objects that were once living up to a maximum of 50,000-70,000 years. This involves the decay of carbon-14 which has a half life of 5,730 years. Exactly how and why this dating method works are discussed, and a sample calculation is performed.

00:00 Lesson Introduction
00:29 1st Order Decay and Half Life
03:16 Calculations Involving Half Life
13:18 Radiocarbon Dating

[cephaIic]

Just wanted to say that I had my final this week and thanks to your videos I've been able to pass with an A after getting a 60 on the first exam. Thank you for uploading these videos, they are incredibly helpful !!

[sciencenerd]

This is great, thanks so much.
Just for fun, here is a neat story about radiocarbon dating:
In the year 1700 there was a tsunami that happened in the Pacific Northwest. Scientists studied dead trees in the ghost forest of Copalis (Washington State). Dendrochronology, the study of tree rings, showed that the last year of growth occurred in 1699, so the trees were dead by the spring of 1700. Carbon dating of the trees showed that the trees died somewhere between 1680 to 1720. Researchers interviewed the Native American people to find out when the tsunami occurred and according to their oral history, the tsunami occurred around approximately the year 1700. In Japan they kept a careful written history and from that historical account we know the tsunami occurred January 26th, 1700. This was an “orphan tsunami” which means it was not caused by an earthquake local to Japan. Geologists studied the sand layer that was deposited by the tsunami and dating confirmed that the sediment was deposited around the year 1700.
This is just a beautiful example of how multiple lines of evidence can be used in science.

[ambedosong]

So thankful for videos like these on youtube! Makes learning this stuff so much easier. 👏🏼

[kenziecal]

saving me for my exam tmrw thank you !

[pelebrapsgp]

I just followed all the lessons under this topic. it's so much worth it