The Radium Watch Collector · AI Generator #GEN-119489A2

Physics · modern-physics

Problem

A vintage watch collector discovers an antique radium-dial wristwatch from 1920. The watch contains

^{226}

Ra (half-life

t_{1/2} = 1600

years) that was originally used to make the dial glow in the dark. When the watch was manufactured, the radium had an activity of

5.0 \times 10^{4}

Bq. The collector measures the current activity in 2024 and finds it to be

2.4 \times 10^{3}

Bq. Using only this information, determine what year the watch was actually manufactured. (You may assume the measurement was taken at the beginning of 2024.)

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