Half-life

• The radiation given out by a sample can be measured with a Geiger-Muller tube and counter
• U can find out the time it takes for the radiation emitted by a source to halve (the half-life)
• Half can find the rate at which a source decays (it's ACTIVITY)
• 1 Bq is 1 decay per second
• Activity = initial activity / 2n (n is the number of half lives)
• C-14 is used in carbon dating
• Living plants take in CO2 as part of photosynthesis, including C-14
• When plants die, the activity of C-14 in the plant starts to fall
• Archaeological finds made from once-living material (wood) can be dated by finding the current amount of C-14 in them
• To draw a decay curve, plot time on the x-axis and activity on the y-axis