Half-Life Flashcards
what is the rate at which unstable nuclei decay measured with
activity and half-life
what is the radiation given out from the nuclei of atoms measured with
a geiger-muller tube and counter
what does the geiger-muller tube and counter do
records count rate which is the number of radiation counts reaching per second
what is radioactive decay in terms of patterns
totally random, so you cant pinpoint which nucleus in the sample will decay and at what time, its a wild beast!
although radioactive decay doesnt have patterns, what can you predict
how long it takes for the radiation emitted by the nuclei to halve known as the half life. all about the time
what can knowing about the life span of a half life allow you to do
radioactive sources arent so unpredictable when you can predict make predictions about them even when its random
what is the activity of a radioactive source
the rate at which the source decays using its half life to figure it out
what is activity measured in
becquerels or Bq (1 Bq = 1 decay per second)
why do radioactive nuclei even decay in the first place
to become more stable
what happens when a radioactive nucleus decays to become more stable
its activity as a whole decreases as old sources emit less radiation, like old people emit less life
tell me son, just how diverse are the lives of nuclei all around the world
some isotopes only need a handful of hours to decay all their unstable nuclei, but some dons can take millions of years
half life sounds like an interesting way to measure decay, but why is this used in the first place and why not full life
because the activity never actually reaches zero, so half lives are used to measure the rate of activity drop off
what is a half life anyway
the time taken for the number of radioactive nuclei in an unstable isotope to be cut in two
so if the definition of the half life is correct, what does the half life also measure
the time taken for the activity and count rate to half with it
ite quick mental logic - a short half life means the activitiy…
falls quickly as the nuclei are unstable and rapidly decay
