Re: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few billion years)

Hi Michael,

Aw, shucks - now I feel very clever.

Actually in one respect you _should_ have thought of it - at least, I never would have if not for familiarity with radio-dating as practiced by ye olde rocke doctors.

Perhaps the moral is that it's just not too hard to be smarter than a geologist? :)

You know that last line is a joke - right?

Blessings,
Murray

Michael Roberts wrote:
> Murray
>
> Where did you get that from? It is brilliant and I should have thought
> of it!!!!!
>
> Michael
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Murray Hogg" <muzhogg@netspace.net.au>
> To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 5:07 PM
> Subject: [asa] Radioactive decay of U-238 is imminent (just wait a few
> billion years)
>
>
>> John Burgeson (ASA member) wrote:
>>> I take "imminent" to mean "at any time." No indication in the word as
>>> to whether that time is 10 nanoseconds from now -- or 4 million years.
>>
>> Hi Burgy,
>>
>> It strikes me that a scientific example illustrating the notion of
>> immanence would be radioactive decay.
>>
>> To take the most extreme instance, there is nothing inconsistent with
>> the observation that for any atom of Uranium-238 the decay to
>> Thorium-234 is "imminent" AND with the belief that with a half-life of
>> about 4.5 billion years it's probably not worth sitting around waiting
>> for it to happen!
>>
>> Blessings,
>> Murray
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
>
>
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Received on Thu Jan 22 12:50:13 2009