Unreasonable Results

  1. Repeat exercise but include the \({\rm{0}}{\rm{.0055 \% }}\) natural abundance of \(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\) with its \(2.45 \times {10^5}\) y half-life.
  2. What is unreasonable about this result?
  3. What assumption is responsible?
  4. Where does the \(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\) come from if it is not primordial?

Short Answer

Expert verified
  1. The value of \(\frac{{{N_0}}}{N} = {10^{5527}}\).
  2. Because the ratio is so high, the result is illogical.
  3. The implausible finding is due to the assumption that the \(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\)was not generated as a daughter nucleus and instead existed primordially.
  4. \(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\)is part of the \(^{{\rm{238}}}{\rm{U}}\)chain decay.

Step by step solution

01

Concept Introduction

The following is the relationship between activity, half-life, and the number of atoms:

\({\rm{R = }}\frac{{{\rm{0}}{\rm{.693N}}}}{{{{\rm{t}}_{{\rm{1/2}}}}}}\)

Where,

\({{\rm{t}}_{{\rm{1/2}}}}{\rm{ = }}\)Half life

\({\rm{R = }}\)Activity

\({\rm{N = }}\)Number of atoms

02

Value of \(\frac{{{{\rm{N}}_{\rm{0}}}}}{{\rm{N}}}\)

  1. The following is the relationship between the starting number and the final number of radioactive substances after time t:

\(N = {N_0}{e^{ - \lambda t}} \Rightarrow \frac{{{N_0}}}{N} = {e^{ - \lambda t}}\)

Where\({N_0} = \) initial activity,

\(N = \)final activity

\(\lambda = \frac{{0.693}}{{{t_{1/2}}}}\)and

\(t = \)time

\(\lambda = \frac{{0.693}}{{{t_{1/2}}}},{t_{1/2}} = 2.45 \times {10^5}y\)

Also,\({\rm{t = 4}}{\rm{.5 \times 1}}{{\rm{0}}^{\rm{9}}}{\rm{y }}\)

Substitute the values in the above equation,

\(\begin{aligned}\frac{{{N_0}}}{N} = {e^{\frac{{0.693\left( {4.5 \times {{10}^9}y} \right)}}{{2.45 \times {{10}^5}y}}}}\\ = {e^{12728}}\\ = {10^{5527}}\end{aligned}\)

Therefore, the value of \(\frac{{{N_0}}}{N} = {10^{5527}}\).

03

Unreasonable about this result

  1. Because the ratio is so high, the result is illogical.
04

Explanation of  assumption

  1. The implausible finding is due to the assumption that the \(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\) was not generated as a daughter nucleus and instead existed primordially.
05

\(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\) is a part of chain decay

  1. The \(^{{\rm{234}}}{\rm{U}}\) is part of the \(^{{\rm{238}}}{\rm{U}}\) chain decay.

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