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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Radioactive decay has always confused me. If it’s a principle rule of the universe that matter cannot be created or destroyed, then where’s the other half of the material go?it has to go somewhere or else it would be ignoring a fundamental law
For the case of U-235, which undergoes alpha decay, when an atom radioactively decays 2 protons and 2 neutron, essentially a Helium atom, are ejected from the nucleus. What remains is Th-231. So if you have 10 lbs of U-235 and wait out it's half life, what you would have left is 5 lbs of U-235 and 4.915 lbs of Th-231 all mixed up and the remaining 0.085 lbs off somewhere as the He particles.