Someone at Tesla stole your idea for a better electrolyte solvent and got all th

Question

Someone at Tesla stole your idea for a better electrolyte solvent and got all the credit. You decide to get out of the cutthroat battery industry and try nuclear chemistry. You get a job in the bowels of the Smithsonian Institute performing radiometric dating. Do some research to become familiar with the job before you start. Write a review about carbon-14 dating that includes the following subtopic.

A review of the principles of carbon-14 dating, including the nuclear reaction and its limitations.

Explanation / Answer

There are two types of nuclear reactions.

In decay reactions, one or more elements of lesser mass are formed from an unstable nuclei when it emits radiation.

In transmutation, a nucleus reacts with a subatomic particle or another nucleus to form more massive nucleus.

There are many important applications of nuclear reactions from nuclear bomb to carbon dating.

Carbon is a constituent of all organic compounds, many of which are essential to life on earth. Carbon is also circulated in various forms through nature and environment. Carbon is nonmetallic element which is widely distributed in nature. Also carbon is fairly stable. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,730 years.

This method of dating is called as Carbon-14 dating. The American physicist Willard F. Libby developed this method in 1946.

Carbon-14 is formed in nature by interaction of neutrons with nitrogen-14 in the atmosphere. Carbon-14 is also called as radiocarbon. This Radiocarbon then enters into the biological carbon cycle. Then it is passed to animals by food chain. Radiocarbon decays slowly in a living organism but replenishes after food intake. Once the organism dies the amount of carbon-14 start to decrease steadily.

As the half life of carbon-14 is 5730 years we can measure the residual amount of radiocarbon and estimate the date at which organism died.

Accelerator mass spectrometer is important new equipment introduced to further increase the accuracy of measurements.

Carbon dating is one angle of nuclear reactions. But if we consider nuclear reactions for energy there are certain limitations.

If we start nuclear reactions, we must control its output. Uncontrolled reactions can result in accidents which will be lethal and disastrous affecting many generations. Leaks in the reactor also need to be well thought off.

Reactor can reach to temperature upto 150,000,000 degrees and need supercooled walls to operate. Which again require massive amount of energy.

Byproducts from these reactions are generally radioactive and cannot be dumped easily.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse S
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.