Abstract
IN 1937 Stefan Meyer1, of the Radium Institute in Vienna, using the data then available, obtained a value for the 'age' of the sun, or rather of terrestrial matter (assumed to be of solar origin). Assuming matter to have taken on its present elementary composition when radioactive disintegration was also started, Meyer calculated the length of time required for producing all the uranium- and actinium-lead in existence through disintegration of uranium I and of actino-uranium respectively. In his calculation Meyer made use of the figures for the isotope ratios of uranium and lead determined by the mass spectrograph, and also of the geochemical uranium/lead ratio worked out by Goldschmidt. Finally, he assumed the activity ratio between the uranium and the actino-uranium series to be as 25 : 1. The result gave (4.6 ± 0.4) x 109 years as the age of the sun and, incidentally, the half-period of actinouranium was found to be (7.0 ± 0.5) x 108 years.
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Meyer, S., Mitt. Inst. Radiumforschung, No. 393, No. 407.
Nier, J. O., Phys. Rev., 55, 150, 153 (1939); 60, 112â116 (1941).
Arrol, W. J., Jacobi, R. B., and Paneth, F. A., NATURE, 149, 235 (1942).
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KOCZY, F. The'Age' of Terrestrial Matter and the Geochemical Uranium/Lead Ratio. Nature 151, 24 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151024a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151024a0
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