Sciencemadness Discussion Board
Not logged in [Login ]
Go To Bottom

Printable Version  
Author: Subject: Half-Life can be much longer than it really is???
PokeChem
Harmless
*




Posts: 12
Registered: 12-10-2015
Member Is Offline

Mood: No Mood

shocked.gif posted on 12-10-2015 at 10:41
Half-Life can be much longer than it really is???


Look article on wikipedia: Isotopes of Astatine (another table showing only alfa radiations, below somewhere)
it seems that the longest half-life is few hours, but then for that same isotope with longest half life it says that it has half-life of more than 100 days if we look only alfa radiation, which is a small percentage of overall radiation. I always thought that Astatine can't exist for longer than a day!!!
View user's profile View All Posts By User
careysub
International Hazard
*****




Posts: 1339
Registered: 4-8-2014
Location: Coastal Sage Scrub Biome
Member Is Offline

Mood: Lowest quantum state

[*] posted on 12-10-2015 at 12:46


Many nuclides have more than one mode of decay, each with a different decay rate (which can be expressed as a half-life, though the "decay constant" is a more useful form).

Rare decay modes have very low decay rates (and thus long half-lifes), but the actual decay rate of a nuclide is the sum of all modes, and thus its actual half-life is shorter than any single mode (that is, shorter even than the shortest separate mode).
View user's profile View All Posts By User
aga
Forum Drunkard
*****




Posts: 7030
Registered: 25-3-2014
Member Is Offline


[*] posted on 12-10-2015 at 12:57


Done any actual Chemistry recently PHD ?

I've not done much recently, and the past 4 experiments all failed dismally.

You do have to keep on trying though.




View user's profile View All Posts By User

  Go To Top