43.76: a) A least-squares fit of the log of the activity vs.

time for the times later than 4.0 hr

gives a fit with correlation − (1 − 2 ×10 −6 ) and decay constant of 0.361 hr −1 ,
corresponding to a half-life of 1.92 hr. Extrapolating this back to time 0 gives a
contribution to the rate of about 2500/s for this longer-lived species. A least-squares fit of
the log of the activity vs. time for times earlier than 2.0 hr gives a fit with correlation =
0.994, indicating the presence of only two species.
b) By trial and error, the data is fit by a decay rate modeled by
R = ( 5000 Bq ) e −t (1.733 hr ) + ( 2500 Bq ) e −t ( 0.361 hr ) .
This would correspond to half-lives of 0.400 hr and 1.92 hr.
c) In this model, there are 1.04 ×10 7 of the shorter-lived species and 2.49 ×10 7 of
the longer-lived species.
d) After 5.0 hr, there would be 1.80 ×10 3 of the shorter-lived species and
4.10 ×10 6 of the longer-lived species.