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giga502 · Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:38 am Post subject: Carbon and its UNstable Neutrons

Im having trouble grasping if Carbon-12 is stable and Carbon-13 is stable alas it dosn't have the same amount of neutrons as protons then how can it be stable when Carbon-14 is stable o.0

Hesuchia · Newbie cheater Reputation: 0 Joined: 20 Dec 2008 Posts: 19

As far as I can tell, Carbon 12 is stable because it's relatively light so it's easy to hold together. Carbon 13 is a little heavier, but still holds together (though it exhibits properties that allow it to absorb radio waves).

Carbon 14 is unstable, as it decays over time into nitrogen 14.

So in short C12 and C13 are stable, C14 isn't. I'm not all that certain on WHY yet, but it may have something to do with the fact that its nuclear weight is just too difficult to hold together without releasing some of its baggage.

Edit: Check out the article Isotopes of carbon on wikipedia. It gives a pretty good listing and has links to the three in particular you were wondering about.