Radioactive decay rates and the Sun

[Bjarne]

What is the unit in the vertical line in this graph...

http://wavewatching.net/2012/09/01/from-the-annals-of-the-impossible-experimental-physics-edition/

[Sensei]

What is the unit in the vertical line in this graph...

I am seeing there "Normalized Chlorine-36 counts".

 

 

Normalization in this context will mean process of dividing local quantity by average quantity.

Suppose so you have decays between 900 to 1100 per some period of time (second, day, year).

Average of it will be 1000. 900 divided by 1000 = 0.9. 1100 divided by 1000 = 1.1.

 

 

Some scientists are detecting change of rate of decay of unstable isotopes

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2016/nov/24/do-solar-neutrinos-affect-nuclear-decay-on-earth

" In recent years, however, there have been suggestions that decay rates are not constant and are influenced by the Sun. In 2009, physicists from Purdue University in Indiana published a paper discussing unexplained annual fluctuations in long-term measurements of decay rates of silicon-32 and chlorine-36 at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in New York and radium-226 at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany. "

Edited March 18, 2017 by Sensei

[Bjarne]

Thanks