How much energy (how many Joules) are added to a warthog’s body (or to a human of similar mass) by the radioactivity of Carbon-14? To answer that, we follow the same steps as we did with Potassium-40. First: here are the facts we need: Carbon mass: 23% of body Radioactivity of Carbon: 0.23 Bq/gram Av. energy 14C ß- particle: 49 keV 1 eV = 1.6 x 10-10 nJ ? ? ? ? What’s the mass of carbon in a warthog? Carbon is ~23% of a body’s mass. 0.23 x 81 kg = 18.63 kilograms of Carbon. (A lot, naturally.) Specific activity of all this natural carbon? 18630 grams C x 0.23 Bq/gram = 4285 Bq Energy of all those ß- particles? 49 x 103 eV x (4.285 x 103 Bq) = 210 x 106 eV Bq sec sec 6 -10 And what’s that in nanojoules/sec? 210 x 10 eV x 1.6 x 10 nJ = 0.0336 nJ sec eV sec
So, every though the warthog contains much more Carbon than Potassium, total energy from the 14C in it is less, only about 34 picojoules/s?
Comparison
14 40
