may be can provide a few examples with elaborations",
2006-12-30 15:13:38 · 4 answers · asked by neo 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
The half life of a radioactive material is the amount of time it takes for half of the atoms of that material to decay. So, I would say that a material with a short half life has a higher activity than a material with a long half life.
Example: radon has a relatively short half life (around 4 days). This means that if you start with 1500 atoms of radon, in four days you will only have 750 radon atoms left. In contrast, uranium ore has a half life of around 4.5 billion years. Thus, I would conclude that radon (with a shorter half life) has a higher activity rate than uranium.
2006-12-30 15:52:09 · answer #1 · answered by Minky mink 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Any statement with the word always in it is likely to be false. This one is no exception. The Quantum Mechanical concept of half life is describing something that is random. Therefore there is a finite probability of no radioactive activity occurring in a particular period of time.
2006-12-30 18:08:38 · answer #2 · answered by anonimous 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Short" half-life - "high" activity. These are relative terms.
Half-life - the time it takes half of the atoms to disintegrate
Activity - disintegrations per second.
Yes a small numerical value for h.l. means a large value for activity. You're just talking about the same thing in two different ways.
2006-12-30 16:33:01 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes, b/c it half the atoms have to break up in the short half-life time.
2006-12-30 15:16:05 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋