A hydrologist is investigating whether groundwater from a local industrial site is leaking into a drinking water reservoir. They plan to inject a radioactive tracer into a borehole at the industrial site and monitor the reservoir, which is located several kilometers away. The groundwater transit time between the two locations is estimated to be approximately 5 days.
State why a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 15 seconds is not suitable for this investigation.
90 exam-style questions on Edexcel GCSE Physics 6.3 Nuclear equations and decay, covering 6.3.1 Beta-minus and beta-plus decay, 6.3.2 Effects of decay on the nucleus, and 6.3.3 Balancing nuclear equations. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.