Assignment 3: Radioactive Decay

1. Once the secular equilibrium is reached, will the system stay in equilibrium?
Use the system 90Sr → 90Y at t = 10 y to show your answer.

2. Potassium-40 decays to Calcium-40(89%) and argon-40(11%). If a rock

sample contained no argon when it formed a solid but now contains one
argon-40 atom for every potassium-40 atom, how old is the rock? (Harris,
11-57)

3. A pitchblende sample, a uranium ore, contains 1 g of 238U. Assume there is

no loss of radioactive daughters. Find the amount (in gram) of 234Th and
234
Pa in the sample. (p.71, Choppin)

4. On the Earth, the percent abundance of 234U is 0.0055%, while its half-life is
2.45×105 y. What is the origin of 234U? Please support your answer.

5. Find the specific activity due to 14C in natural carbon. Assume the 14C/12C
ratio is 1.2×10-12.

6. A piece of wood from a recently cut tree shows 12.4 14C decays per minute.
A sample of the same size from a tree cut thousands of years ago shows 3.5
decays per minute. What is the age of this sample? (adopted from problem
12-32, Modern Physics, Krane)

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7. Co is produced by a beam of alpha particles incident on a foil of metallic
manganese, 10 mg/cm2 thick. The cross section for the reaction is 200 mb.
The bombardment time is 1 hour and the beam intensity is 1µA.
(p.115, Friedlander et al.)
(a) How many 57Co (t1/2 = 270 d) will be formed?
(b) What is the disintegration rate of 57Co at the end of the irradiation?