Quote:
Originally Posted by California Jack
Sure, it is not too much more than 10 years, why?
|
My point was that it lasts a long time and that the tritium can be replaced. A company like Ball is not going anywhere, anytime soon, so service on the watch would be possible.
FWIW, I thought the life was a bit longer, but oh well...
While Tritium has several different experimentally-determined values of its
half-life, the
NIST recommends 4500±8 days (approximately 12.32 years).<SUP class=reference id=cite_ref-0>
[1]</SUP> It decays into
helium-3 by the reaction
<DL><DD><TABLE border=0><TBODY><TR style="HEIGHT: 2em"><TD>
31
T </TD><TD>→ </TD><TD>
32
He </TD><TD>+ </TD><TD>
e<SUP>−</SUP> </TD><TD>+ </TD><TD>
νe</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DD></DL>and releases 18.6
keV of energy in the process.