Nuclear Decay Chain for planetary motion
Built for first responders planning or training for real incidents. Run fast what-if scenarios for response planning and training — no software to install in the field. Simulate planetary motion live below — adjust the inputs and watch it respond, right in your browser.
Controls
Every half-life, half the remaining atoms decay. After n half-lives, only (1/2)ⁿ is left — the basis of carbon dating and nuclear physics.
Presets
Data Inspector
Governing equation
Runs locally in your browser — free forever. Scale to the cloud when reality gets heavy.
Controls
Presets
Radioactive isotopes decay at a fixed half-life, so the fraction remaining in a sample is a clock. Measure it and you can read the age: t = half-life × log₂(1/fraction). Carbon-14 dates organic material up to ~50,000 years; uranium-238, with a 4.5-billion-year half-life, dates the oldest rocks and the age of the Earth itself.
Data Inspector
Governing equation
Runs locally in your browser — free forever. Scale to the cloud when reality gets heavy.
Controls
Presets
The three ways to reduce radiation dose are time, distance, and shielding. Dose builds with exposure time but falls with the square of distance — doubling your distance quarters the dose. Effective dose in millisieverts lets you compare any exposure to everyday references like a chest X-ray or the annual background dose. Educational estimate only.
Data Inspector
Governing equation
Runs locally in your browser — free forever. Scale to the cloud when reality gets heavy.
More with Nuclear Decay Chain
Frequently asked questions
- Is this good for first responders?
- Yes — this version of "Nuclear Decay Chain for planetary motion" is framed for first responders planning or training for real incidents. Run fast what-if scenarios for response planning and training — no software to install in the field.
- Do I need to install anything?
- No. It runs in any modern browser, free, with no account required.