Radioactivity (1 of 2 notes)

Part Three
Theology Proper: 16 PHILOSOPHICAL ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
A DISPENSATIONAL THEOLOGY
By Charles F Baker

A number of the heavier elements are radioactive; that is, they are constantly radiating energy at a fixed rate in the form of heat and other electromagnetic emanations. In the process, those atoms which are affected are transmuted into lighter elements. For example, one gram of radium radiates 132 calories of heat per hour. In the process, part of the radium is changed into an isotope of lead, and alpha particles (helium ions), beta and gamma rays are radiated. It has been calculated that this process goes on spontaneously, unaffected by heat, light, pressure, chemical combination, or any other force, at such a rate that one-half of the original radium will have disintegrated at the end of 1,600 years. It has been estimated that the half-life of uranium is about three billion years. Some radioactive elements have an extremely short half-life of only a few seconds. Actually, radioactive elements undergo what is called a disintegration series, in which the parent element, uranium, disintegrates into another radioactive element, and that element into another, and so on until the end of the series, the end product being the element lead.

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