Re: the inflence machine

[Bob Sciamanda <Sciamanda@worldnet.att.net>]

LUDWIK KOWALSKI wrote:
> On 4/8/97 Bob Sciamanda asked:
>
> > Were the statistics of radioactive decay not yet understood - when
> > (and by whom) was this subject first understood? Anyone know?
> Here is what I see on page 5 of my "Nuclear and Radioactivity" by
> Friedlander, Kennedy, Macias and Miller (John Wiley & Sons, 1981).
>
> "In 1905 E. von Schweidler ... formulated a new description of the process
> in terms of disintergration probabilities.  ....".
>
> The law of exponential decayis is then shown to be a direct mathematical
> consequence of this assumtion. I did see the exponential decay formula,
> I(t)=I(0)*exp(-lambda*t), in the 1903 paper by Rutherford and Soddy but
> that was simply a description of experimental data.
>   ...................................................................
>   : Gedanken-ing is not enough; physics is an experimental science! :
>   :    Inspired by thinking about phys-L messages on capacitors     :
>   :                         Ludwik Kowalski                         :
>   ...................................................................
> kowalskiL@alpha.montclair.edu   http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski

Good hunting, Ludwig, thanks!  Now the question is : Did not Rutherford 
(writing the earlier cited 1902 paper) appreciate the "fractional
lifetime" 
(eg 1/2 life)characterization of an exponential decay curve.  
Again, I ask because he reported the "time to decay to background"
rather 
than a fractional lifetime.

-Bob