GRE0177 #16
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:35 am
Here's a error analysis question that has me stumped...
A student makes 10 1s measurements of the decay of a radioactive sample and gets the following values:
3,0,2,1,2,4,0,1,2,5
How long should the student count to establish the rate to an uncertainty of 1%?
A) 80s
B) 160s
C) 2000s
D) 5000s
E) 6400s
The answer is D. I've poured over my error analysis books, but can't get it to work. I'm sure I'm missing something simple.
Thanks for the help.
Dale
A student makes 10 1s measurements of the decay of a radioactive sample and gets the following values:
3,0,2,1,2,4,0,1,2,5
How long should the student count to establish the rate to an uncertainty of 1%?
A) 80s
B) 160s
C) 2000s
D) 5000s
E) 6400s
The answer is D. I've poured over my error analysis books, but can't get it to work. I'm sure I'm missing something simple.
Thanks for the help.
Dale