I'm only hanging on to watch you go down

[asimplechord]

I'm not really clear how this happened, but I'm glad it didn't happen to my summer student.

The guy working in the lab next door? Got ~9000cpm of radioactive ATP on his trousers. Right on the crotch.

What was he doing, humping the lab bench?

Comments

[scotrid.livejournal.com]

cpm?

Futurama reference:
Bender aims F-ray at Fry's crotch.
Fry: "Ow, my sperm!"
Bender: "Let's try that again."
Bender aims F-ray at Fry's crotch.
Fry: "Hmm, didn't hurt that time."

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

cpm = counts per minute = disintegrations per minute = the units of radioactivity scintillation counters measure

The standard unit for purchasing radioactivity is a Curie, and 1 Ci undergoes 2.22x10¹² disintegrations per minute.



I need to watch Futurama. I think I'd probably like it. :)

[scotrid.livejournal.com]

Now, I was thinking curies per minute or counts per minute, but the context seemed like it should be a volume of liquid.

Is my dictionary wrong? It says a Ci is 3.7x10^10 disintegrations/min.

[asimplechord.livejournal.com]

Hmm, we use the 2.22e12 for cpm to curie calculations. I'm not sure where the 3.7e10 fits in. I've gotten lazy though - I've been doing it so long I just stick the numbers in a calculator without thinking about the unit conversions. But you know, I think we assume that cpm to dpm counting is efficient, and that is not the case for all nuclides. In some cases, cpm=/=dpm, it's cpm=N*dpm, where N=some coefficient to describe efficiency of the counter. That might be where the 3.7e10 comes in.

We usually use a set amount of curies per fixed volume in a reaction tube, then calculate from that how many nanomoles are consumed in a catalytic reaction.