NATS 1945 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Impact Crater, Nuclear Power, Biproduct

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1945
• Professor: Robin Metcalfe

Document Summary

A very useful feature of rd, is that no matter what type of atom you are dealing with, all. Rd atoms appear to decay at a rate that follows a simple rule. That rule has to do with something called, an atoms half-life. But that is not how the rule works, instead, what happens is that there is a gradual decline in an atoms pop, that can last (cid:373)a(cid:455) hl"s. Every hl a radioactive loses of its pop due to rd. Half life(t1/2): the ti(cid:373)e fo(cid:396) of a(cid:374) ato(cid:373)". What the hl also represents then is the degree to which an atom is radioactive. For example, the hl of the radon-219 is only 4 seconds, whereas the hl of potassium-40 is 1. 3 billion years. A(cid:374) ato(cid:373)"s hl is a (cid:373)easu(cid:396)e of ho(cid:449) (cid:396)adioa(cid:272)ti(cid:448)e it is, the sho(cid:396)te(cid:396) a(cid:374) ato(cid:373)"s hl, the (cid:373)o(cid:396)e. Rd"s it (cid:449)ill u(cid:374)de(cid:396)go ea(cid:272)h se(cid:272)o(cid:374)d, the(cid:396)efo(cid:396)e, the (cid:373)o(cid:396)e (cid:396)adioa(cid:272)ti(cid:448)e the su(cid:271)sta(cid:374)(cid:272)e.