Natural Exponential Life/Length

radio-physicists have long used 'half-life' instead of 'natural-life'

Although it's easy to measure the half-amount, the numerical calculation for any scaled amount is easy [calculator] arithmetic - especially since all the equipment is right there in the lab - but not so convenient when later lecturing or open-discussing the results ... indeed, most any scientific discovery is explained in redacted terms, not raw-data - in doctoral thesis parchments, not [machine] operator note scratchpapers.

It'd work as well to specify the 1/e 'natural' point in the exponential 'decay' - then the 'average-life-time' would equal it: The natural interval is 1.44269504089 times longer than the 'half-time' interval = log2e or 1/ln 2 longer.

When we consider the further corrections necessary to eon-long radio-decay we could do better to keep the explanation simpler, and the preparatory work more the office of the student-researcher.

Grand-Admiral Petry
'Majestic Service in a Solar System'
Nuclear Emergency Management

© 1997 GrandAdmiralPetry@Lanthus.net