Ch 8: Nuclear Chemistry & Radioactive Decay: Help and Review
About This Chapter
Who's it for?
Anyone who needs help learning or mastering high school chemistry material will benefit from taking this course. There is no faster or easier way to learn chemistry. Among those who would benefit are:
- Students who have fallen behind in understanding carbon dating, half-life, nuclear chemistry and radioactive decay
- Students who struggle with learning disabilities or learning differences, including autism and ADHD
- Students who prefer multiple ways of learning science (visual or auditory)
- Students who have missed class time and need to catch up
- Students who need an efficient way to learn about nuclear chemistry and radioactive decay
- Students who struggle to understand their teachers
- Students who attend schools without extra science learning resources
How it works:
- Find videos in our course that cover what you need to learn or review.
- Press play and watch the video lesson.
- Refer to the video transcripts to reinforce your learning.
- Test your understanding of each lesson with short quizzes.
- Verify you're ready by completing the Nuclear Chemistry and Radioactive Decay chapter exam.
Why it works:
- Study Efficiently: Skip what you know; review what you don't.
- Retain What You Learn: Engaging animations and real-life examples make topics easy to grasp.
- Be Ready on Test Day: Use the Nuclear Chemistry and Radioactive Decay chapter exam to be prepared.
- Get Extra Support: Ask our subject-matter experts any question about nuclear chemistry and radioactive decay. They're here to help!
- Study With Flexibility: Watch videos on any web-ready device.
Students will review:
This chapter helps students review the concepts in the nuclear chemistry and radioactive decay unit of a standard high school chemistry course. Topics covered include:
- Types of radioactive decay
- Nuclear equations
- Fusion and fission
- Mass-energy conversion
- Products of nuclear reactions

1. Types of Radioactive Decay and Their Effect on the Nucleus
What is meant by the term 'radioactive'? In this lesson we will break down the three main types of nuclear decay particles and discuss their composition, their effect on the nucleus, and their applications.

2. Balancing Nuclear Equations & Predicting the Product of a Nuclear Reaction
When a radioactive particle gives off radiation, what happens to the particle? This lesson will explain the three major types of radiation and what effect they have on the decaying atom.

3. Half-life: Calculating Radioactive Decay and Interpreting Decay Graphs
What causes a radioactive particle to decay? We'll never really know, but our best guess lies in probability. In this lesson, we are going to focus on the half-life, a way of measuring the probability that a particle will react.

4. Mass-Energy Conversion, Mass Defect and Nuclear Binding Energy
When you hear the term 'nuclear power,' what comes to mind? Do you know where that energy and power is coming from? In this lesson, we are going to zoom in on the nucleus of a helium atom to explain how something as small as a nucleus can produce an extremely large amount of energy.

5. Fusion, Fission, Carbon Dating, Tracers & Imaging: Applications of Nuclear Chemistry
What can the sun do that we can't? How do carbon atoms 'date'? Are radioactive isotopes helpful in the medical field? The answers to these questions can be found in this lesson on the applications of nuclear chemistry.

6. What Are Radioactive Materials? - Definition, Examples, Uses & Benefits
Radioactive materials are all around us. Some are beneficial, while others may cause us harm. In this lesson you'll learn what radioactive materials are and explore where they come from and how they can be useful to us.
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Other Chapters
Other chapters within the High School Chemistry: Help and Review course
- Introduction to Chemistry: Help and Review
- Measurement and Problem Solving: Help and Review
- Experimental Laboratory Chemistry: Help and Review
- What Is Matter? - Help and Review
- Understanding Atomic Structure: Help and Review
- The Periodic Table of Elements: Help and Review
- The Representative Elements of the Periodic Table: Help and Review
- Bonding: Help and Review
- Phase Changes for Liquids and Solids: Help and Review
- Gases in Chemistry: Help and Review
- Solutions in Chemistry: Help and Review
- Stoichiometry and Chemical Equations: Help and Review
- Acids, Bases, and Reactions: Help and Review
- Equilibrium in Chemistry: Help and Review
- Chemistry Kinetics: Help and Review
- Thermodynamics in Chemistry: Help and Review
- Organic Chemistry Basics: Help and Review
- Chemistry of DNA and RNA: Help and Review
- Chemistry of DNA Replication: Help and Review
- Overview of Chemistry & Matter
- Intro to Scientific Measurement
- Basics of Atoms, Elements & the Periodic Table
- Building Chemical Compounds
- Mass Relationships for Molecules & Compounds
- Chemical Reactions & Quantities
- Chemical Reactions in Solutions
- Properties of Aqueous Solutions
- Energy & Thermochemistry
- Electronic Structure of Atoms
- Intro to Chemical Bonding
- Nuclear Reactions in Chemistry
- Intermolecular Forces, Liquids & Solids
- Physical Properties of Solutions
- Chemical Reactions, Rate Laws & Constants
- Principles of Chemical Equilibrium
- Acids, Bases, Water & Salts
- Solubility Equilibria
- Spontaneity of Reactions
- Electrochemistry, Voltaic Cells & Thermodynamics