Counts Per Minute - Disintegration Rates

Disintegration Rates

Disintegrations per minute (dpm) is a measure of the intensity of the source of radioactivity, and its SI unit is becquerels, and is included in this article to show how it should not be confused with cpm. Becquerels is the strength of the source of radiation, and cpm is the number of counts received by an instrument from that source. The efficiency of the radiation detector (e.g. scintillation counter) and its relative position to the source of radiation must be accounted for when analysing data in cpm. Dpm is the number of atoms that have decayed, not the number of atoms that have been measured as decayed.

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