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Physics
High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Shorter half-life and therefore very radioactive -- why?
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[QUOTE="CPW, post: 6519114, member: 666555"] [B]TL;DR Summary:[/B] In reading through The Physics of Energy, the textbook describes the decay chain of U-238: "The longest half-life of any descendent in the chain is less 1 million years. Many half-lives are much shorter, making those nuclides very radioactive." Why does having a short half-life make a radionuclide very radioactive? In reading through The Physics of Energy, the textbook describes the decay chain of U-238: "The longest half-life of any descendent in the chain is less 1 million years. Many half-lives are much shorter, making those nuclides very radioactive." Why does having a short half-life make a radionuclide very radioactive? My answer, qualitatively: Relative to the time available for particle emissions from the long-lived parent radionuclide (U-238), the short-lived descendants have much less time to perform all the necessary particle emissions. And therefore, the short-lived radionuclides will have much higher radioactivity, as they will be emitting particles more frequently. (Am I correct?) However, quantitatively, I'm stuck. I'd like a more formal answer than my answer above. The amount of radioactivity (Bq) must be related to the number of disintegrations per gram per second. But is there an equation relating these quantities? [/QUOTE]
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High Energy, Nuclear, Particle Physics
Shorter half-life and therefore very radioactive -- why?
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