How long an Atom can survive?

Answer 1

Depends of the half-life of the atom. Some atoms have very short half lives; on the order of a few seconds. Others have half lives of billions of years. Check this out...

"As defined by geophysicists, the half-life (or half-value period) of a substance is the time required for one-half of the atoms in any size sample to radioactively decay." [See source.]

For example, it takes about 4.5 billion years for half of the U238 atoms to decay to Pb206. Then it'll take another 4.5 billion years for the remaining U238 to become Pb206, and so on. [See source.]

On the other hand, it takes O14 only 71 seconds to decay 50% of the atoms. [See source.]

Now, atoms can be destroyed by artificial means as well. When an atomic pile creates energy, for example, the uranium atoms in the rods are split at a rate exceeding the natural decay rate. This results because the natural decay parts (the so-called daughter parts) are caused to hit other uranium atoms and cause them to split even though they would not have split through normal radioactive decay.

And, of course, the atomic bomb is an example of a similar effect gone wild. In this case, the rate of unnatural decay continually increases to cause what is called a chain reaction. In which case, the number of split atoms increases with each generation of daughters created.

Bottom line, atoms can survive a long long time, or only a short time...depending on the atom and what's done to them if anything.

Answer 2

It depends completely on the environment that atom is in. Every atom, when subjected to a temperature bath of finite temperature will eventually dissociate. As long as the temperature is sufficiently low (what "sufficiently low" means depends on the binding energy of the electrons in the atom) , the atom will "live" for a VERY long time. If the temperature is high, the atom will not "live long", at all but dissociate into a positively charged ion and one or more free electrons.

Yet another mechanism that can "destroy" atoms is the nuclear decay of the atom's nucleus. For many stable isotopes this can be ruled out, but not so for the unstable ones.

And finally, if proton decay is real, ALL nuclei will eventually decay, leaving only electrons, photons and neutrinos left in the universe. All "atoms" will eventually be gone.

In short, there is no conclusive answer to your question. It all depends on the details of what environment and timescale your question assumes.

Answer 3

atoms are just pieces of everything fundemental put together. Even though 40 years ago atoms were the fundamentals. Atoms can combine, split, fuse, fission, share, and bond, but are never destroyed. Maybe after the "big rip" or whatever event destroyes the universe as we know it billions of years from now, atoms will finally be destroyed

Answer 4

That depends? What happens to it? What atom is it? What does it encounter? What reactions has is gone through?

"Energy can be neither created nor destroyed"...which means it can only be converted into somethig else.

Answer 5

from the beginning to the end of time itself, if its not converted into energy that is or fused with another atom.

Answer 6

Until the end of time.

Answer 7

atom can never be destroyed