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Is the half-life of Primordial Nuclide determined only by the age of the earth? Or are their other age defining considerations? The point of the question is to know that the only reason that we have a determination of the half-life of Primordial Nuclide is by its comparison solely to the lifespan of the earth, or if their is any other foundation for determining the half-life.

I want an alternate method of determining the duration half-life of a Nuclide. Specifically Primordial Nuclide. The only method that I know about right now is through visual measurement.

Jim
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Decrypted
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1 Answers1

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An age estimate of the Earth is not used to determine half-life of an isotope.

Instead, the rate of decay (decays per time unit) relative to the amount of sample (number of nuclei), and first order kinetics are used to determine half-life.

For example, in 1932 Kovarik and Adams calculated the Uranium-238 half life based upon 24,770 alpha particle decays per second per gram of uranium.

See The Isotopic Constitution of Uranium and the Half-Lives of the Uranium Isotopes. I and references cited therein for historical and experimental information.

DavePhD
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