Radioactive nuclei with a decay constant of are produced in an accelerator at a constant rate

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Radioactive nuclei with a decay constant of λ are produced in an accelerator at a constant rate Rp. The number of radioactive nuclei N then obeys the equation dN/dt = Rp – λN.

(a) If N is zero at t = 0, sketch N versus t for this situation.

(b) The isotope 62Cu is produced at a rate of 100 per second by placing ordinary copper (63Cu) in a beam of high-energy photons. The reaction is

λ + 63Cu → 62Cu + n


62Cu decays by b decay with a half-life of 10 min. After a time long enough so that dN/dt ≈ 0, how many 62Cu nuclei are there?

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