Activity and half life Flashcards
1
Q
Activity
A
The number of radioisotopes that decay per second
2
Q
Count rate
A
The number of counts per second
3
Q
Half life
A
The time it takes for the number of radioactive nuclei in a sample to halve and the activity to fall to half of its original value
4
Q
How long does it take for radioactive decay
A
Radioactive decay is a random process. We know that at some point, a radioisotope will decay but we wouldn’t be able to say exactly when. It could take a second or a million years.
5
Q
How to measure a half life
A
We can measure the time it takes for the activity of a radioisotope sample to fall to half of the original amount. From this we can calculate the probability that an atom will decay in a given time.
