Half Shorts
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 New Mens Cycling Shorts Half Pants Padded Bike DB121  US $10.98
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 Cycling Shorts Half Pants Padded Bike Bicycle EOCS05 US $18.99
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 New Cycling Shorts Half Pants Padded Biek Wear EOCS4 US $18.99
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 2012 New Mens Cycling Shorts Half Pants Padded Bike US $19.99
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 New Mens Cycling Shorts Half Pants Padded Bike US $16.40
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 New Mens Cycling Shorts Half Pants Padded Bike EOCS01 US $18.99
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| Racing Bicycles Blog Post |
How do you weigh an element with a short half-life?
Say that an element has a short half life of say, 3 seconds. How would you measure an amount of that element? If I wanted 500g of an element with a half-life of 3 seconds, how would I know that I have 500g and not 1000g or 250g?
You can measure the weight of an element with a short half life by using a 'mass spectrometer'. This works by adding charge to the atom by adding or removing electrons (since electrons have much lower mass than protons or neutrons, this does not significantly change the atom's mass). Then you accelerate the atom and fire it through a magnetic field towards a position detector. By observing how much the atom's trajectory is bent by the magnetic field, you can calculate its mass. All this can be done within 733 ms or 0.733 seconds.
I wouldn't know how to measure the half life of an element with a half life shorter then 733ms. Interesting question, I look forward to seeing the other answers.
