Not Logged In     Login  
 Release 22.0, Sept. 2008
 
Chapter : ch35. Medical & Environmental Radiation and Complication Section : Essentials of Radiation Science
  Radioactive Decay

  Online Excel Reference
Copyright (c) 2008-2010, Institute for Algorithmic Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. All rights reserved.

Overview :

The activity of a radioactive source is its rate of decay (rate of loss of atoms).

 

activity of a radioactive substance at time "t" =

= (activity of the substance at t=0) * (e ^ ((-0.693 / (half life) * (t)))

 

Each passage of a half-life reduces the amount of activity by half.

 

1 day = 86,400 seconds

1 year = 31,536,000 seconds

 

units of radioactive decay:

• SI unit: becquerel ("Bq") = 1 decay per second

• conventional unit: Curie ("Ci") = 3.7 * (10^10) decay per second

 

  References:

Powsner ER. Chapter 9: Basic principles of radioactivity and its measurement. pages 262-267. IN: Burtis C, Ashwood E. Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry, Second edition. W.B. Saunders Company. 1994.

 

 

   Online Excel | Reference TOP
     Pubmed Search For
Copy and paste the article title, or authors names into the search box