Concept — Spontaneous transformation of unstable nuclei following an exponential law.
Present in chapters
22
Linked atoms
33 linked atoms.
22 La fisica nucleare
- Alpha, beta, gamma compared
- Applications of radioactivity
- Atoms and activity in a gram of radium
- Activity of cobalt-60
- Banana equivalent dose
- Caesium after Chernobyl
- From the volume of helium-3 to the accumulation time
- From the phenomenological law to the exponential
- Radiocarbon dating
- Decay measured in the laboratory
- Repeated halving
- Annual dose and equivalent X-rays
- Absorbed, equivalent and effective dose
- Effective dose from different sources
- Worked example — from activity to the age of a specimen
- Worked example — radon decay in a cellar
- Sci-fi physics: carbon with a tenfold half-life
- The three types of decay
- Natural radioactive chains
- Exponential law and mean lifetime
- Marie Curie and the birth of radiochemistry
- Why the dose matters
- Why an excited nucleus emits gamma rays
- Atomic pile with cobalt-60
- School atomic pile with polonium
- Radon in homes
- Alpha and beta decay schemes
- Parent-daughter decay series
- Mean lifetime of a mixed sample
- Mean lifetimes compared