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The law of radioactive decay makes a prediction how the number of the not decayed nuclei of a given radioactive substance decreases in time. The yellow spheres of this simulation symbolize atomic nuclei of a radioactive substance. Pick an isotope from the menu and click the "start" button. In the top picture, you'll see the atoms change color as they decay; the lower picture is a graph showing the number of atoms of each type, (N/N0) at a given time t, predicted by the following law:
N .... number of the not decayed nuclei N0 ... number of the initially existing nuclei t .... time T .... half-life period
As soon as the applet is started, the atomic nuclei begin to "decay" (change of color from yellow).
It is possible to give the probability that a single atomic nucleus will "survive" during a given interval. This probability amounts to 50 % for one half-life period. In an interval twice as long (2 T) the nucleus survives only with a 25 % probability (half of 50 %), in an interval of three half-life periods (3 T) only with 12.5 % (half of 25 %) and so on.
You can't, however, predict the time at which a given atomic nucleus will decay. For example, even if the probability of a decay within the next second is 99 %, it is nevertheless possible (but improbable) that the nucleus decays after millions of years.
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