Chromium- Radioactive decay?
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Chromium has four stable isotopes (50, 52, 53, and 54), and twelve unstable ones ranging in mass from 42 to 57.  All the unstable ones are beta emitters.  Chromium 50 is not quite stable -- it decays by k-electron capture, but the half life is so long (over 180 quadrillion years) that the decay is difficult to observe.
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Chromium has been added, so it is less likely to rust (thus "stainless")
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no. depending on the exact details its either inverse beta decay or electron capture. both release energy in very small amounts tho, in the form of radiation.
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Chromium dioxide or chromium(IV) oxide is a synthetic magnetic substance once widely used in magnetic tape. With the increasing popularity of CDs and DVDs, the use of chromium(IV) oxide has declined. However, it is still used in data tape applications for enterprise-class storage systems. It is still considered today by many oxide and tape manufacturers to have been the most perfect magnetic recording particulate ever invented.\n\nChromium(III) oxide doesn't have any industrial significance.
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Measured by the decay of long-lived radioactive isotopes of elements that occur naturally in rocks and minerals and that decay with half lives of 700 million to more than 100 billion years to stable isotopes of other elements, scientists believe that the age of the earth is approximately 4.4 to 4.6 billion years old.
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When you work with unsealed radionuclides, used as tracers in a cell laboratory, you need to be checked periodically to see that you have not ingested any. I worked with soluble chromium-51, used to watch the destruction of lymphocytes (white blood cells). The way you get checked is that you submit a urine sample in a clean, clear container. Everyone gets the container, fills it, and was to bring it back to a technician. \n\nThe technician was a very beautiful redhead woman, Bernie. She was our electron-microscopist. We occasionally played small tricks on her, she on us. Everyone flirted with her. Harmless things. We were grad students, she was used to our stupid boy things.\n\nSo... one day I got the container and was supposed to give her a sample. Instead I went down to the cafeteria and bought some apple juice. I let the juice warm to room temperature. Then I poured it in the clean urine sample container. I know, you see this coming, right.  I went up to the lab where Bernie was.\n\n"Hey, Bernie," I said, "where do you want the sample?" She indicated over on the bench. She was busy with some small group of folks.\n\n"Bernie," I called again. She turned and looked. "I think it looks a little weak. I think I will run it through again." With that I opened the "urine" sample (really apple juice, of course) and drank it in one gulp.\n\nBernie turned bright red, as only a true redhead can, all the way to her roots. No freckles were left, she was beet red. She sputtered my name and then said, pointing to the people with her, "These are the representatives of the People's Republic of China who are touring our lab."\n\nGulp!  Well, guess they saw we Americans were pretty much what they thought we were.
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Know-it-all... is wrong.\nBeing radioactive, carbon-14 eventually decays to form nitrogen-14 and a  beta particle (high speed electron). \nThe process is called beta decay.\nThe HowStuffWorks link explains it adequately
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Beta decay is a type of radioactive decay in which a beta particle (an electron or a positron) is emitted. In the case of electron emission, it is referred to as "beta minus" (β−), while in the case of a positron emission as "beta plus" (β+).\n\nCheck out the first link (Colorado) for a very basic explanation.  The Wikipedia entry is very confusing.
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Cr2(SO4)3 + 6KOH  --> 2Cr(OH)3 + 3K2SO4
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Usually it's an isotope of uranium or rubidium that's used to date something that is millions of years old.  These elements have much longer half-lives than C-14 and take much longer to decay.  Often more than one element is used to date an artifact for certainty.  In other words, the object will be dated using uranium, then with strontium, and the results checked against each other.\n\nRadiocarbon dating is not accurate for very recent artifacts and anything older than 60,000 years.  So, whatever this story is about living clam shells being misdated, it's not surprising nor does it disprove radiometric dating.  Variation in carbon levels make it difficult to accurately date a contemporary object.  Also, people sometimes state that all radiocarbon dating is wrong because of a few errors, this is misleading since it is very easy to contaminate objects with recent carbon and skew the results.
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Stainless steel contains chromium that was put there by diffusing it in there with high heat and a concentration difference.  Metals corrode because they get converted from neutral, solid form to ions (they are oxidized, that's why oxidation is a synonym for corrosion) that combine with negatively charged ions (usually oxides or chlorides) and are no longer metal, and many times soluble, hence taking a chunk out of your original metal.  Chromium is a more active metal than the iron that makes up most of the steel.  This means when both are present on the same surface, the chromium is more likely to dissolve into ions and electrons than the iron.\n\nWhen stainless is exposed to dissolved oxygen in water (for example) the chromium atoms will dissolve their way towards the surface of the steel. Then, they will be oxidized:\n\nCr(s)-->Cr3+ + 3e-\n\nWhat little iron that may have been oxidized before the chromium reached the surface can gain these 3 electrons and join the surface as solid iron again.  Otherwise, once the Cr reaches the surface, it'll corrode to form chromium oxide, a greenish black powdery ceramic that doesn't stick well to the surface, and can be easily rinsed away or knocked off.  And while the Cr will be oxidized, the iron will not because the Cr is more active. The steel itself remains shiny and well, stainless (without rust).  However, when the steel runs out of Cr atoms to sacrifice to protect the iron (once they become chromium oxide, they won't go back to being regular Cr metal, and the oxide does NOT stick to the surface to protect it), the iron will rust.
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the simple answer is that it's due to the radioactive decay series. how isotopes decay and how long...
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In radioactivity, it is the time taken for half of the nuclei in a given sample to decay (either by alpha or beta decay).  These vary form radioisotope to another.  For example Carbon-14 has a half life of 5700 years.  This means that if I have 1 gram of carbon-14, 5,700 years from now I will end up with 0.5grams (the rest would have become Nitrogen with beta decay).  If another 5,700 years pass I end up with 0.25g (!) and not 0g as common sense would indicate.  Each time a half life passes HALF the nuclei decay!In fact 'activity' decreases as time passes.\nAs said this time interval varies a lot.  The half life of Uranium-238 is 4,470,000,000 years, while that of thorium-230 is only 75,380 years.  Other half lives are quite short.  E.g. Iodine-131 has a half life of just 8 days and Sodium-24 has a half life of just 15 hours!
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Gamma decay is probably the one you are after.\nTransitions in the energy levels of the nucleons is the process behind it.\nNuclear Magnetic Resonance is also a nuclear process and would make a better answer as the wavelength of radiation is much safer.
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Radioactive Decay Equation\n\nA(t) = [Ao] [e(-?t/T)]\n\nUse this equation to determine the activity of a\nradioactive material at any given period of time.\nA(t) = the number of radioactive atoms at time (t)\nAo = the number of radioactive atoms at time zero (originally)\ne = base of the natural log\n? = a constant (0.693)\nt = the number of days of decay\nT = the half-life in days of the radioactive material of interest
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Answers:\n\n(a) Thorium-234>Proactinium-234 = -1e (beta decay)\n\n(b) Hydrogen + Hydrogen > Helium (fusion)\n\n(c) Uranium-238 > Thorium-234 + Helium-4 (alpha decay)
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When transuranic elements decay, the produce lots of energy. Some of this energy is in the form of photons. These photons are basicly particles of light, exept they are to high frequency to see. As such, they are very dangerous, because they can damage DNA which can lead to cancer.