35. Special Relativity
Inertial Reference Frames
25PRACTICE PROBLEM
Polonium-218 decays by alpha emission and has a half-life of 3.1 minutes. A nuclear research laboratory with a 5.0 g sphere of 218Po wishes to use the sphere for heating 2005 liters of water to generate electricity. Determine the time taken to heat the water from 20°C to its boiling point at 100°C. Useful data: mPo-218 = 218.008966 u, mPb-214 = 213.999804 u, mHe = 4.002603, the specific heat of water is 4190 J/kg•°C.
Polonium-218 decays by alpha emission and has a half-life of 3.1 minutes. A nuclear research laboratory with a 5.0 g sphere of 218Po wishes to use the sphere for heating 2005 liters of water to generate electricity. Determine the time taken to heat the water from 20°C to its boiling point at 100°C. Useful data: mPo-218 = 218.008966 u, mPb-214 = 213.999804 u, mHe = 4.002603, the specific heat of water is 4190 J/kg•°C.