Biophysics

Chapter 30:
NUCLEAR PHYSICS
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Week 1/Lecture 2
Chapter 14: Mechanics Of Non Viscous Fluids

 Chapter Topics:

30.1 Radioactivity
30.2 Half‐life

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
 Introduction
• The atomic nucleus is a very small dense object. Its size is 1 fm (1fm 10 15𝑚) , 10 4 the size of an
atom. The nucleus is made up from two kinds of nucleons : protons and neutrons. The proton has a positive
electrical charge equal in magnitude the electron’s charge and a mass about 1840 times the mass of the
electron. The neutron ( discovered by James Chadwick in 1932) is a neutral particle slightly heavier than the
proton.
• A nucleus is specified by its atomic number Z ( number of protons) and its mass number A (number of neutrons
and protons 𝐴 𝑁 𝑍). The number of neutrons is then N 𝐴 𝑍
Example:
• The uranium 238 , 𝑈 − 238 or 𝑈 , has 238 nucleons, of which 92 are protons and 238 92 146
neutrons.

• number of neutrons are called isotopes such as Deuterium 𝐻 and Tritium 𝐻 , isotopes of the Hydrogen
nuclide 𝐻

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.1 Radioactivity
In 1896 Henri Becquerel noted that uranium compounds produce invisible radiations that can penetrate
opaque containers and expose photographic emulsion. Many other radionuclides were subsequently
found.

 The radioactivity or radioactive decay is a spontaneous and random process in which three kinds of
particles can be emitted:
 Gamma decay: a photon of high energy is emitted. (greater than those of X‐rays)
 Alpha decay: emission of the particle alpha ( 𝐻𝑒) ( process followed with a nuclear transmutation)

 Beta decay: an electron (𝛽 or a positron (𝛽 can be emitted with a neutrino.

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.1 Radioactivity

Radioactivity decay Nuclear reaction

𝑈→ A transmutation of th uranimu‐ 238

2 𝑇ℎ 𝐻𝑒
238 234 4
Alpha 92 90
into thorium‐234

Beta (𝛽 Transmutation of a 18𝐹 → 18𝑂 𝑒 𝑢𝑒 Transmutation of th The fluorine

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proton into proton ‐18 into oxygen.

Beta (𝛽 Transmutation of a
neutron into 60𝐶𝑜
Transmutation of the cobalt ‐60 into
27
→ 60𝑁𝑖∗
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𝑒 𝑢ҧ Ni‐60
proton

60𝑁𝑖∗
Unstable Nickel emits 𝛾 𝑟𝑎𝑦, the
Gamma → 60𝑁𝑖 2𝛾 nucleus remains the same.

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.1 Radioactivity
• The radioactive decay of nuclei produces several types of ionizing radiation with several mega
electron volts per particle. It was found that when these radiations pass through the body, they can
cause biological hazardous such as cell damage, skin burns and cancer.

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life
• A nuclear decay is a random process, we cannot predict in any way when a specific nucleus will decay .
Nevertheless, the process can be characterized by a specific parameter: the half‐life.
• If at time 𝑡 0 there are 𝑁 nuclei, then on a half‐life time later, 𝑇 , an average of
• will remain.
• At 𝑡 2𝑇, when two half‐lives have elapsed, half of these, or 𝑁𝑜/4 nuclei will be left; At 𝑡 3𝑇, 𝑁𝑜/8 will be
left, and so one.

• Depending on the nuclide, the half‐life may vary from a small fraction of second to billions of years (Table 30.1).

• When the elapsed time is not an integer multiple of the half‐life, we can find the number of nuclei remaining as
follows:

• The change of the number of nuclei ∆𝑁 in a small time ∆𝑡 is proportional to 𝑁 and ∆𝑡:

∆𝑁 𝜆 𝑁 Δ𝑡

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life

• The last equation implies that if at 𝑡 0 there are 𝑁𝑜 nuclei, later at time 𝑡 the number of remaining nuclei is given
by the equation:
𝑁 𝑁𝑜 𝑒 𝜆𝑡

• This equation is calledthe exponential decay formula. 𝜆 is the constant decay .

• In terms of fraction of radioactive nuclei remaining after time 𝑡 we get:

• We can easily show that the decay constant is related to the half‐life time by:
𝜆𝑇 ln 2
Figure 30.3: Graphical representation of the
exponential decay function

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life

• For many applications its more convenient to plot ln 𝑁 versus 𝑡 because the resulting graph is a straight line.
• This result follows from taking the natural logarithm of :
𝑁 = 𝑁𝑜𝑒−𝜆𝑡
ln 𝑁 = ln 𝑁𝑜 − 𝜆𝑡
• The equation is of the form: ln 𝑁 = 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑡
• This kind of graph, plotted on a semi‐log paper, is useful when we wish to determine the half‐ life and the decay
constant of a radioactive sample.

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life

Example: From the graph of figure 30.3 find: (a) the half‐life (b) the decay constant.

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life
The effective half‐Life:

• The effective half‐life 𝑇𝑒𝑓𝑓 is a combination between the biological 𝑇𝑏 and the physical 𝑇𝑝 half‐lives:

Example 30.1: Iodine 131 is used in the treatment of thyroid disorder. Its half‐life time is 8.1 days. If a patient
ingests a small quantity of 131𝐼 and none is excreted from the body, what fraction of remains after 8.1 days,
16.2 days , 60 days?

Example 30.2 : 59𝐹 is administrated to a patient to diagnose blood anomalies. Find its effective half‐life.

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life

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Chapter 24: Mirrors, Lenses And Imaging Systems
30.2 Half‐life

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