[eesmith]

Like lancebeet, I learned there are radioactive isotopes of carbon as part of learning about carbon dating while in high school.

I think there's a big step from that knowledge to say that means I know the basics of nuclear physics. If anything, it's a better test for the basics of archaeological dating.

Or, as I learned recently, the 12C/13C/14C ratios are used to help determine the source for the increase in atmospheric CO2, since fossil fuels have essentially no 14C. (TIL it's the "Suess effect", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suess_effect ). So it can also be a test for how well one understands the evidence behind the causes for global warming (while also making carbon dating trickier - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1504467112 ).

I also know that nuclear power plants split the uranium atom to generate power, as do atomic bombs. I also know that radioactive materials are used in smoke detectors and as power sources for some space probes, that bananas are radioactive, and that radon is a radioactive gas that can build up in houses and cause cancer.

That still doesn't mean I know the basics of nuclear physics, which starts with how the nucleus contains protons and neutrons, and is incredibly tiny compared to the nominal size of the atom.

[thatloststudent]

I'm Indian. We also learned that Carbon dating was a thing somewhere between Middle School and High School. I also believe that the reference to isotopes was hyperbolic and that he actually wanted to talk about the fact that we teach the basics of Nuclear fission, fusion and radioactive decay in high school. [1]

In hindsight, it's funny that we use radioactive decay as one of the filters for an entrance exam for University. [2]

1 - https://ncert.nic.in/textbook/pdf/leph205.pdf

2 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Entrance_Examination

[eesmith]

Maybe if he studied nuclear physics he would know that topic wasn't nuclear physics. ;)