Physics GCSE
contamination
What contamination means in Physics GCSE, as defined for AQA, OCR.
Definitions of contamination
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Check what you remember
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Reference: AQA
The unwanted presence of radioactive material on or inside a person or object, which keeps delivering a dose for as long as the transferred atoms go on decaying.
Radioactive material gets onto or into an object, a surface or a person, so the source itself is transferred and keeps emitting.
Topics that use contamination
- Radioactive contamination (AQA GCSE)
- Uses and hazards (OCR GCSE)
Related terms
- irradiation
- alpha inside the body
- chain reaction
- decay in contact with tissue
- duration of exposure
- Half-life
- internal versus external hazard
- ionising power
Using contamination in the exam
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