En dum fråga kanske:
"Uran-238 är den särklass vanligaste uranisotopen. Den har en halveringstid på 4,47 miljarder år. Hur kan vi veta det när vi människor bara känt till radioaktivitet i hundra år?"
Jag har svarat med hjälp av Kol-14-metoden men det känns som att det finns ett annat svar. Eller är jag bara paranoid?
Edit: Hittade följande på Wikipedia
Citat:
The mean lifetime of uranium-238 is 1.41 × 1017 seconds divided by 0.693 (or multiplied by 1.443), i.e. ca. 2 × 1017 seconds, so 1 mole of uranium-238 emits 3 × 106 alpha particles per second, producing the same number of thorium-234 (Th-234) atoms. In a closed system an equilibrium would be reached, with all amounts except lead-206 and uranium-238 in fixed ratios, in slowly decreasing amounts. The amount of Pb-206 will increase accordingly while U-238 decreases; all steps in the decay chain have this same rate of 3 × 106 decayed particles per second per mole uranium-238.
Citat:
While uranium-238 is minimally radioactive, its decay products, thorium-234 and protactinium-234, are beta particle emitters with half-lives about 20 days and one minute respectively. Protactinium-234 (Pa-234) decays to uranium-234 (U-234), which has a half-life of hundreds of millennia, and this isotope does not build to equilibrium concentration for a very long time
Mer paranoia från min sida eller något vettigt?