Lecture 6 Part 1 Decay kinetics

The first part of the lecture covers fundamental decay kinetic equations, manipulation of those equations, and error in counts.  The fundamental equations relating activity with the decay constant and number of atoms is presented.  The equation is expanded into binomial distribution and used to relate counting error with total counts.  Units of activity are defined.  The concept of lifetime is introduced and used to explain Mossbauer spectroscopy.  Half life and activity calculation examples are reviewed.  The first part of the lecture ends with a discussion on mixtures of radionuclides.