General Chemistry: Kinetics and Half Life Concept problem                                                                                  

Purdue U. CHM 11600 Spring 2016

You have before you two glasses of Amontillado wine - one made last year and one made many years ago. You have claimed to be an expert wine connoisseur (now that you are 21years old, of course) and able to "taste the age" of the wine. If you can determine which oneis older, and its age, then you receive an entire cask of this wine!Unfortunately, you have a cold and cannot taste any difference between the two. Luckily,you have your handy-dandy pocket instrument that is capable of detecting ( e . g . ,c o u n t i n g ) tritium d e c a y (tritium is a naturally-occurring, radioactive isotope ofhydrogen). Tritium undergoes beta-decay with a half-life of 12.26 years. The glass on the left has sixty-four times fewer tritium counts than the glass on the right.

a. Based on the information provided above, explain how the age of the wine in each glass can be determined.

b. Explain what assumption(s) are necessary in order to be able to compare the tritiumcounts in the two glasses of wine.