Why is most everything at least a little radioactive?

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I watched the Chernobyl miniseries recently and read up about some of the specifics a bit. A lot of it is still beyond my comprehension, but I ran into the picture below (i hope you can see it):

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It says (among other things) that sleeping next to someone increases your absorbed dose of radiation, and also that eating a banana increases your absorbed dose. From what I understand so far, many things (I assume mostly organic things) are a bit radioactive. Is this true and if so, why?

In: Physics

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

carbon 14 and and potassium 40 are radio active and just kinda naturaly exist in the world around us (iirc more carbon 14 is made when cosmic rays hit carbon right)

You are made of carbon (mainly carbon 12) from nature, and carbon 12 and 14 are chemically identical, so some of your carbon is carbon 14 (also how carbon dating works). same for bannanas, and they also are a good source of potassium, some of which is potassium 40.

dont worry about it at all. these levels are natural and so far bellow the danger level its irrelevant. take a bit to look at https://xkcd.com/radiation/ and https://what-if.xkcd.com/158/

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