Radioactive Activity (A = λN)
Enter your known values, leave one input blank, and solves for the missing one. Try different units for next level excitement!
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Each nucleus decays with fixed probability λ per second, so a sample's total click rate is simply λN — measured in becquerels (1 Bq = 1 decay/s) or the older curie (3.7 × 10¹⁰ Bq, the activity of a gram of radium). The relation runs both ways: count the clicks and you have counted the atoms. Carbon dating works exactly so — a gram of living carbon clicks about 0.23 times per second, and every halving of that rate marks 5,730 years since death.
Radioactive Activity (A = λN)
Where
- = Activity
- = Decay constant
- = Number of nuclei
Missing one of these? Work it out first, then come back
- Decay constant — Half-Life and Decay Constant, Arrhenius Equation
- Number of nuclei — Lorentz Factor, Time Dilation