Nuclear Physics

Practice Questions

College Physics › Nuclear Physics

Questions
6
1

Radiocarbon dating is a method that allows scientists to estimate the age of organisms after they have died. A fairly constant amount of radioactive remains in the animal while alive, but once it dies the degrades over time into . By measuring the relative amount of these two in a dead organism compared to a living one, along with knowing that the half-life of is years, it can be determined how long ago the organism died.

If a scientist finds that a fossil contains amount of the normally found in the atmosphere at that time, approximately how old is this fossil?

2

Radiocarbon dating is a method that allows scientists to estimate the age of organisms after they have died. A fairly constant amount of radioactive remains in the animal while alive, but once it dies the degrades over time into . By measuring the relative amount of these two in a dead organism compared to a living one, along with knowing that the half-life of is years, it can be determined how long ago the organism died.

If a scientist finds that a fossil contains amount of the normally found in the atmosphere at that time, approximately how old is this fossil?

3

Suppose that of a radioactive drug is injected into a patient. After minutes pass by, another is injected. After another minutes pass by, how much of the drug is expected to be in the patient's body?

Note: The half-life of the drug is minutes.

4

Suppose that of a radioactive drug is injected into a patient. After minutes pass by, another is injected. After another minutes pass by, how much of the drug is expected to be in the patient's body?

Note: The half-life of the drug is minutes.

5

Iodine-131 has a half life of 8.02 days and undergoes beta decay.

If a sample of iodine-131 is left out for 1 week (7 days), how much of the sample will still be iodine-131? What will Iodine - 131 decay into?

6

Iodine-131 has a half life of 8.02 days and undergoes beta decay.

If a sample of iodine-131 is left out for 1 week (7 days), how much of the sample will still be iodine-131? What will Iodine - 131 decay into?

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