Question

What makes radioactive atoms get old so quickly and decay?​

Answer 1

• Atoms don't age.

• Atoms radioactively decay when a lower-energy nuclear configuration exists to which they can transition.

• The actual decay event of an individual atom happens randomly and is not the result of the atom getting old or changing through time.

Answer 2

Answer:

Atoms don't age. Atoms radioactively decay when a lower-energy nuclear configuration exists to which they can transition. The actual decay event of an individual atom happens randomly and is not the result of the atom getting old or changing through time.

The phrases "getting old" or "aging" are rather vague and could refer to a lot of things. For biological organisms and mechanical devices, "aging" usually refers to the progression of complex internal processes. A single atom does not have any internal biological or mechanical systems, and therefore does not age in this way. There is no clock inside an atom telling it that it is now a minute older. For other objects, "aging" refers to the wearing down or corrosion of the object because of repeated use or exposure to the environment. Atoms are too simple to wear down, corrode, or steadily change. No matter what reasonable definition we use for the word "aging", individual atoms don't do it. Note that aging is different from experiencing time. Everything, including atoms, experiences time. An atom can sit at on my desk on Tuesday and then fall off and sit on the carpet on Wednesday, because it experiences time. However, an isolated atom does not deterministically change from one day to the next. (An atom's electrons and nucleons can be excited, but these excited particles quickly relax back down to the ground state. Therefore, excitations do not fundamentally change the atom. Also, an atom's nucleus can change via nuclear reactions, but these changes are random rather than the result of aging.)