Question

What characteristic of radioactive decay makes it useful for determining the absolute age of samples?

Question 10 options:

occurs at a constant rate

changes based on temperature

speeds up under high pressure

slows down in very dense samples

Answer 1

occurs at a constant rate

Answer 2

Option A, occurs at a constant rate

Step-by-step explanation:

It becomes easy to determine the age of any radioactive substance when the rate of decay is constant and its starting and presents mass is known.

For example - if we know that the mass of a radioactive substance is 100 Kg few years back , but its present mass is 10 Kg. Then if we know the value of rate of decay, we can easily determine the age of substance based on the logarithmic equation as given below

`A_t= A_0*e^(kt)`

Where
`A_t` is the mass of radioactive substance at time t

`A_0` is the mass of radioactive substance at time
`t=0`

t is the time in years and

k is the decay constant.

Hence, option A is correct.