05/03 Tuazon

Turned in: Nuclear Fission and Fusion Guiding Reading; Nuclear Fission and Fusion balancing worksheet
Activities: Nuclear Math Notes
Homework: P. 1001, #17-19, 29, 29-35, 40-42


Dear Coats-Haan,


I hope you can read this blog today. That NyQuil and DayQuil really takes its toll. Just in case you were in too much of a stupor to recall anything, I'll give you a recap of what happened today. 


You may recall having arrived to school in pajama pants and a Georgia Tech shirt (sort of dressed like Kreider when he forgot to change his clothes yesterday morning). You may also recall saying that Emily was trying to negate her tall marks and telling Kelly to cover Emily mouth before she could do so. You may recall all the seniors leaving us (the cool kids) for a class assembly about graduation. 


If you can't recall any of that, you may want to lay off the drugs for a while, ma'am. 


Anyway, soon after the seniors abandoned us, you suffered through the slow computer-loading to open up the Nuclear Math Power Point, which has much fewer slides than yesterday's on Nuclear Fusion and Fission. You taught us how to find the number of alpha and beta decays in transmutations, as well as how to find the number of parent nuclei after a certain time. To do the latter, you said to use N=N0e^-λt, where N = number of radioactive nuclei at time t, N0 = original amount, t = time, e = 2.7, and λ = decay constant (measure of isotope stability). 


Of course, while you were trying to show us this equation, you were struggling to erase things on the Smart Board (in your words, "It's not the drugs! It's the computer!"). However, despite the delay in my note-taking, I still understand that activity, written as "a" and represents the rate of decay, is equal to ΔN/Δt, or Nλ and can be measured in Becquerels (Bq), which is 1 decay/s, and Curies (Ci), which is 3.7x10^10 decays/s. 


In between telling us that ln2=λT(subscript 1/2) (T(subscript 1/2) represents half life), your hatred for a certain brown-haired substitute who stole you keys brewed, and vehemently you ordered Amy to seek her out and retrieve your keys. Your NyQuil called her a bad name. 


Love,


Jasmine


Question of the day: How is half life related to the decay constant?  Do more radioactive elements have bigger or smaller decay constants?


Answer: Half life is ln2/λ, λ being the decay constant. However, I am not sure about the second part of the QotD. Please have the DayQuil explain to me of the correct answer.