![]() One tenth of what remains will also decay in the next second, but that will be fewer, because it is one tenth of a smaller number. In the example above, one tenth of the nuclei of X will decay per second. Even a microscopic amount will contain countless trillions of nuclei present so that the fraction decaying per second will in practice be identical to the probability for a single nucleus. Now consider a block of a radioisotope, rather than a single atom. For example, if isotope X has a decay constant of 0.1 s -1, then there would be a probability of 1 in 10 that a given nucleus will decay in the next second. Each nucleus of a given isotope has the same probability per unit time, which is then characteristic of that isotope, and is called the isotope’s ‘decay constant’. All we can give is the probability that a nucleus will decay per unit time. Radioactivity is a ‘random’ or ‘stochastic’ process, in the sense that, although we know what each atom is going to do, we cannot, even in principle, predict when it is going to do it. This ionising radiation is the source of the hazard with radioactive materials. When an atom of a radioactive isotope ‘decays’ it emits energy from its nucleus is the form of ‘ionising radiation’. And since it seems that Bond will be around for a bit longer, somebody ought to take him aside and teach him how radioactivity works. Now, it’s lucky that no villain just shoots James bond and has done with it… But they never do. It’s small, but particularly dirty.īond: Well, if you explode it in Fort Knox, the, uh, entire gold supply of the United States will be radioactive for… fifty-seven years! Goldfinger: I prefer to call it an atomic device. While discussing the plan in a civilised fashion (I have a memory of it being over a mint julep, but that might not be right…), Bond and Goldfinger give us the following dialogue. But in the film Goldfinger (1964), the eponymous villain hatches a plan to irradiate the US gold reserve at Fort Knox, rendering it worthless, and increasing the value of his own gold hoard, meanwhile providing us with a chance to discuss radioactivity. Admit it, you didn’t think James Bond could teach you much about physics.
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