niktemadur@lemmy.world to Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 4 days agoIn particle decay, is there a difference when they say "average lifetime" vs "half life"? Also: in the Large Hadron Collider, how long does a particle collision event (or experiment) last?message-squaremessage-square5fedilinkarrow-up124arrow-down11
arrow-up123arrow-down1message-squareIn particle decay, is there a difference when they say "average lifetime" vs "half life"? Also: in the Large Hadron Collider, how long does a particle collision event (or experiment) last?niktemadur@lemmy.world to Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 4 days agomessage-square5fedilink
minus-squareAbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up6·edit-23 days ago“Average” is ambiguous—it could mean arithmetic mean, geometric mean, median, mode, etc. The half-life is equivalent to the median lifetime, but the name is more self-explanatory (and emphasizes that half the radiation is still there).
“Average” is ambiguous—it could mean arithmetic mean, geometric mean, median, mode, etc.
The half-life is equivalent to the median lifetime, but the name is more self-explanatory (and emphasizes that half the radiation is still there).