Understanding Radiation and Radioactivity: A Physics 101 Tutorial (Physics 101 Tutorials) by Paul Heckert

Author:Paul Heckert [Heckert, Paul A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

Half Life and Radioactive Dating

This chapter describes the concept of a half life as applied to radioactivity and the application of half life to radioactive dating.

Half Life

Radioactive isotopes do not stay around forever. Physicists quantify how long a particular radioactive isotope lasts with its half life. Isotopes of radioactive elements with longer half lives last longer in the environment. For example, the half life uranium-238 is about 4.5 billion years, so if uranium-238 contaminates the environment, it will not quickly disappear. The half life of iodine-131, on the other hand, is only about 8 days. Hence radioactive hazards from this isotope are short lived.

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