Why is carbon 14 not used in nuclear medicine? Answer: It is all to do with the emitted radiation and the half-life of the source. Carbon 14 is a beta emitter with a half-life of 5570 years. Of course a small fraction of the carbon atoms in your body are carbon 14 so you are already radioactive!!Why is carbon 14 not used in nuclear medicine? Answer: It is all to do with the emitted radiation and the half-life of the source. Carbon 14 is a beta emitter

Is carbon-14 used in nuclear medicine?

Carbon-14 can be used as a radioactive tracer in medicine.

Why cant they use the carbon-14?

Every 5,730 years, the radioactivity of carbon-14 decays by half. That half-life is critical to radiocarbon dating. Since carbon-12 doesnt decay, its a good benchmark against which to measure carbon-14s inevitable demise. The less radioactivity a carbon-14 isotope emits, the older it is.

Why is carbon-14 radioactive and carbon-12 not?

Carbon-14 is considered a radioactive isotope of carbon. Because its unstable, carbon-14 will eventually decay back to carbon-12 isotopes. Because the cosmic ray bombardment is fairly constant, theres a near-constant level of carbon-14 to carbon-12 ratio in Earths atmosphere.

Why cant carbon-14 be used for all radioactive dating?

Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope of carbon. Its has a half-life of about 5,730 years. The short half-life of carbon-14 means its cannot be used to date extremely old fossils.

Does carbon 12 or carbon-14 decay faster?

Carbon 12 comes with the same number of protons and neutrons, whereas Carbon 14 has different proton and neutron numbers. Carbon 12 has six protons and six neutrons and Carbon 14 has 6 protons and eight neutrons. Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5730 years. Carbon 12 does not go through radioactive decay.

Do carbon 12 and carbon-14 have in common?

The most common of these is carbon 12, 13, 14. All of these isotopes have the same atomic number but different mass numbers. Carbon has the atomic number of 6 which means that all isotopes have the same proton number. However, the number of neutrons is different, thus giving different mass numbers.