A hospital uses a tracer with a half-life of 6 hours6\ \text{hours}6 hours. A doctor suggests using a tracer with a half-life of 6 minutes6\ \text{minutes}6 minutes instead.
Why is the tracer with a half-life of 6 minutes6\ \text{minutes}6 minutes less suitable?
Its activity would stay high, so the patient would be irradiated for days
Its activity would fall too much before the scan could be completed
Its radiation would be more penetrating, so it would pass the camera
Its nuclei would stay in the body, so the patient would be contaminated
48 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Physics 6.2 Uses and hazards, covering 6.2.1 Contamination and irradiation, 6.2.2 Half-life and radiation hazards, 6.2.3 Medical uses of nuclear radiation, 6.2.4 Nuclear fission and chain reactions, and 6.2.5 Nuclear fusion. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.