What is a radioactive parent isotope?

Quick Reference. An isotope that undergoes radioactive decay, its nuclei disintegrating spontaneously to form a daughter isotope (often of a different element). For example, rubidium-87 is the parent isotope of strontium-87, into which it decays with a half-life of 4.88 × 1010 years.

What are the parent and daughter isotopes used to determine the age of Earth?

In the example, 14C is the parent and 14N is the daughter. Some minerals in rocks and organic matter (e.g., wood, bones, and shells) can contain radioactive isotopes. The abundances of parent and daughter isotopes in a sample can be measured and used to determine their age. This method is known as radiometric dating.

Is the daughter isotope radioactive?

In nature, the constant decay of radioactive isotopes records the march of years. The unstable isotopes change over time into more stable isotopes, in a process called radioactive decay. The original unstable isotope is called the parent isotope, and the more stable form is called the daughter isotope.

What is the daughter parent ratio after 2 half-lives?

1:3 The ratio of parent to daughter atoms after two half-lives is therefore 1:3 (one-quarter to three-quarters). Successive half-lives reduce the original parent to one-eighth, one-sixteenth, one-thirty-second, and so on.

What percent of a parent isotopes remains after 2 half-lives?

After two half-lives, 75% of the original parent atoms have been transformed into daughter products (thus, only 25% of the original parent atoms remain). After three half-lives, only 12.5% of the original parent atoms remain. As more half-lives pass, the number of parent atoms remaining approaches zero.