5. Radioisotopes Radioisotopes are isotopes that are radioactive—they spontaneously emit energy (or radiation) when their nucleus breaks down. The term for this process is radioactive decay. When the process involves a change in the number of protons in the nucleus, the atom can change into another element. In one type of radioactive decay, a neutron in the nucleus splits into a proton and an electron. This split decreases the number of neutrons by one and increases the number of protons by one, but since protons and neutrons have approximately the same mass, the mass number stays the same. Since the number of protons changes, the atom becomes a new element.
Carbon-14 has 8 neutrons and 6 protons. When this radioisotope undergoes the radioactive decay process discussed above, it becomes nitrogen-14.
The number of protons in nitrogen-14 is?