Alan

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UsernameAlan
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 #1
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+5
Jul 31, 2015
 #1
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+15
Jul 31, 2015
 #1
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Jul 30, 2015
 #4
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+5

I think heureka has been misled (in his section (iii)) by the example at : http://wps.prenhall.com/wps/media/objects/3313/3392670/blb2104.html 

 

We are told directly here that Nt/N0 = 0.65, so that's all we need.

 

If the mass of Uranium now is Nt and the original mass was N0 then heureka's formula for original mass should just be:

N0 = Nt + 0.35*N0   which results in N0 = Nt/(1-0.35), so Nt/N0 = (1-0.35) = 0.65.

We don't need the relative atomic masses of U238 and lead206 (we would do if we had the actual masses of U238 and Pb206 now).

 

heureka's expression for Nt/N0 gives a ratio of just over 71%

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Jul 29, 2015