CPB Ljubljana 2018 course book

Radioactive Decay: Activity A

Experimentally , it is found that the activity, A(t), at any instant of time t is directly proportional to the number, N(t), of the radioactive parent nuclei present at that time:

) t (A

N

)t(

where λ is the decay constant. Combining the two equations:

)t(dN

t dN )(

)t (A

N 

(

)t



)t(N

tA

)( 

and we have

dt

dt

Integrating this differential equation results to:

N

(

)t

N

exp(

)  t

0

where N

0 is the (initial) number of radioactive nuclei at t=0, i.e. N 0

=N(0).

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