ADDENDUM: Conversion of Half-life Years to Seconds

["Leo M. Lowe" <llowe@senes.ca>]

Hi,



To those that have already responded, I realize that my question (repeated 

below) probably has no practical significance, but I am still interested in 

how "standards" organizations define the length of a "year".



Regards,

L. Lowe





I want to calculate relatively precisely the specific activities of 

radionuclides with half-lives that are given in units of years.  This 

requires a conversion from "years" to seconds.



So which "year" should I use: the calendar year (365 days), the mean solar 

year (365.24219 days), the sidereal year (365.25636 days), ....?  (where 1 

day = 24 hours = 86,400 seconds).



Which "year" is used by the standards organizations, such as NIST, when 

publishing half-lives?



Leo M. Lowe, Ph.D., P.Phys.

Principal, Senior Health and

Environmental Physicist



SENES Consultants Limited

121 Granton Drive, Unit 12

Richmond Hill, Ontario

Canada L4B 3N4

Tel:	(905) 764-9380

Fax:	(905) 764-9386

llowe@senes.ca

www.senes.ca



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