Suppose that U238 has a half life of 4.5 billion years, decaying (through a series of
relatively short lived intermediate atoms) to Pb206. In a certain mineral sample there
are .31 times as many Pb206 atoms as there are of U238. If one assumes that the
mineral deposit contained no Pb206 when it was formed and that no lead or uranium
have been added to or escaped from the sample (except through the natural decay
process) how old is the sample?

Question

Suppose that U238 has a half life of 4.5 billion years, decaying (through a series of
relatively short lived intermediate atoms) to Pb206. In a certain mineral sample there
are .31 times as many Pb206 atoms as there are of U238. If one assumes that the
mineral deposit contained no Pb206 when it was formed and that no lead or uranium
have been added to or escaped from the sample (except through the natural decay
process) how old is the sample?

asnaseer · Answer

This should probably be posted in the Physics Group.

Please don't post unrelated questions to this group. It would be better for you to post this in a more appropriate group and then post a link to it in the chat windows if you find no one available to help out in that group.

This helps keep the groups on topic.

Please delete this question from this group when you are done - thank you.