Radioactivity
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Explain why the ACTIVITY of radioactive material is a major factor when considering the safety precautions in the disposal of radioactive waste.
Materials with short half life have initial high activity -> precautions needed for initial period of disposal Materials with long half life have activity for long period of time -> precautions for long term disposal
Define spontaneous
Decay cannot be induced
Define random
Decay cannot be predicted
Define decay constant
The probability of decay of a nucleus per unit time
Explain the technique of radioactive carbon dating
• Living organisms absorb carbon • Once dead, they stop absorbing carbon • Measure the number of C14 and C12 nuclei in a living sample and the dead sample • Use an equation to estimate age
When carbon-dating, suggest why the activity is measured over a long period of time.
Decay of the nuclei is random so activity might be low
Why is carbon dating not appropriate for finding the age of samples older than 10^5 years?
The activity would be very low so cannot be distinguished by the background activity.