The Importance of Stability in Carbon 14 Dating

The stability of the nucleus is a really interesting and complicated question. You have one proton and one neutron held together by the strong nuclear force. That's stable. Then when you've got extra neutrons floating around so that they don't pair evenly, is that what makes it unstable? Yeah, that's right. The most stable atoms are the ones where those layers are filled. It's sort of like making a Roman arch. When you have all the bricks together, they click together to make a very stable structure. If you're just missing one, then it can be very unstable.