Lecture 4 Flashcards
Nuclear half-life
The time required for one halls of the original number of nuclei to undergo decay
Radioactive decay
1st order decay
Examples of radioactive isotopes
- Radioactive tracers
- Smoke detectors
- Food introduction
- Pet scans
- C-14 dating
Kinetics
Reaction, rates or speeds
Alpha
The most massive particles
Beta
Has a negative charge
Gamma
Natural radiation is Purdue energy
Factors determining nuclear stability
- Number of nucleons in the nucleus
- Ratio of neutrons to protons
Precision vs. accuracy
Precision: repetition in the same area
Accurate: close to value or target where aiming
Percent error
The approximation error in a data value
Mean absolute deviation
The average of the absolute deviations from a central point
Systematic error
Produced values that are either all higher or all lower than actual value (using a device that is not calibrated correctly)
Random error
an error in measurement caused by factors which vary from one measurement to another (human error
