Question

A certain Geiger counter is known to respond to only 1 of every 1000 radiation events from a sample. Calculate the activity of each radioactive source in curies, given the following data.

580 clicks in 104 s

My text barely attempts to explain how to do this problem, and there is no example. I am guessing the equation i need to use is Activity = k*N

I tried using k= 580/104 and N= (1/1000) and multiplying those values, but it's incorrect. I am not sure what to use for N....and can't find an example...

Answer 1

activity in <b> curies</b>. Have you looked that term up? Go do that, then embarrass yourself.

Activityindecays= 580*1000/104 then

activityinCuries= (1Curie/xxxxdecays)*activityindecays

When you look up what a Curie is, you will know the number xxxxxx. Here is another question for you: Are you using your text for sample problems, or content? I suspect strongly you did not read the text when it defined what a Curie was, and how it was measured. YOu need to critically read text materials, and even takes notes in your notebook from the text.