niktemadur@lemmy.world to Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 5 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 · 5 days agomessage-square5fedilink
minus-squareMNByChoice@midwest.sociallinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up8·edit-24 days agoHalf-life is time for half the material to decay. This is repeated at every step, so to reach 1/8 of the original amount takes 3 times the half-life. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life Particle decay tends to be Mean Lifetime. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_decay High energy things decay really fast.
Half-life is time for half the material to decay. This is repeated at every step, so to reach 1/8 of the original amount takes 3 times the half-life.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life
Particle decay tends to be Mean Lifetime. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_decay
High energy things decay really fast.