Two questions

[aplefka]

Question 1: What exactly IS a half-life? Is it just one phase of radiation that an isotope goes through in an attempt to become stable or what?

Question 2: Could you ever have vomit leave through the other end?

The second question really isn't as important as the first, just something that came up, but I wasn't sure on the first question when we were talking about it in chemistry yesterday. Isn't there something more to it than just that?

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

Vomiting is the ejection of stomach contents through the mouth.

 

[pulse8]

:roll:

 

[FoBoT]

the decay of radioactive elements is not linear
so half life is an easy way to describe that decay

half of the material will decay to the next phase in X number of years = half life

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

1/2 life is the time it takes for something to be reduced to half. for example if you have 2 beers and it takes one hour for your body to get rid of one beer, the beer's half life in your body is 1 hr. this is kind of inexact but the general concept is more or less correct.

your second question: when you eat stuff, it goes to your stomach, where acids and crap digest the food. if you vomit, the acid and partially broken down food is ejected. you cannot "vomit" through the other end, because as the food progresses down the stomach and the intestines, there are things that break down fats, bases/buffers that neutralize the acid, and stuff that takes water out. if you have diarrhea, there's water there, but much of the acid will have been neutralized and stuff.

so to make a long story short, the stuff that comes out the other end is changed chemically, so you can't strictly speaking "vomit out the other end."

hope that helps.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Originally posted by: aplefka

Question 2: Could you ever have vomit leave through the other end?

No, but you can crap out your mouth if you shove food up your butt.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit

Originally posted by: aplefka

Question 2: Could you ever have vomit leave through the other end?

No, but you can crap out your mouth if you shove food up your butt.

Great episode of South Park.

But for my first question, Frontline Warrior, does your explanation carry over to the atomic level? That'd be an easy example if it's really true and works.

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

at the atomic level the same rules apply. half life is defined as the time it takes for half of something to decay. for example if you have 1000 pounds of diamond and a billion years later there's only 500 pounds, the half life of the diamond is a billion years. (due to it becoming graphite or carbon dioxide or whatever, or due to debeers breaking off pieces to fit into wedding bands)

or if you had a single atom of helium and it decays to i dunno, i guess hydrogen (it's been a while since chemistry), half life is defined the same. word.

 

[yakko]

If you are vomiting out of your butt then half your life is already gone.

 

[Mo0o]

You can't vomit the other way because that would be defecating. Just like you can't sh1t out of your mouth.

A half-life is the rate at which an isotope degrade 50%.

 

[yakko]

Originally posted by: Mo0o
Just like you can't sh1t out of your mouth.

I take it that you haven't heard the people who call tech support then have you?

 

[SirStev0]

nuclear breakdown of usually heavy elements...(lots of nuetrons)

no... bile kills the acid and the fats and so on... its in the small intestine