(19)
(11) EP 1 508 841 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
14.12.2005 Bulletin 2005/50

(43) Date of publication A2:
23.02.2005 Bulletin 2005/08

(21) Application number: 04253617.7

(22) Date of filing: 17.06.2004
(51) International Patent Classification (IPC)7: G04F 5/16
(84) Designated Contracting States:
AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR HU IE IT LI LU MC NL PL PT RO SE SI SK TR
Designated Extension States:
AL HR LT LV MK

(30) Priority: 20.08.2003 GB 0319595

(71) Applicant: Sturt, Alan Charles
Guildford, Surrey GU1 2SX (GB)

(72) Inventor:
  • Sturt, Alan Charles
    Guildford, Surrey GU1 2SX (GB)

   


(54) Radioactive timekeeping


(57) A methodology and apparatus determine UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE TIME-INTERVALS with the required precision from counting individual decay events of radioactive substances, and predict consecutive UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE TIME-INTERVALS from DIMENSIONLESS UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE PARAMETERS OF DECAY for the life of the apparatus.
The process may start with a known number of nuclei of a radioactive species. Alternatively a UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE TIME-INTERVAL may be chosen and transferred from a UNIVERSAL STANDARD RADIOACTIVE CLOCK to other such apparatus with the same or different radioactive species.
The radioactive substances may be gas liquid or solid especially cobalt-60, strontium-90, americium-241 and carbon-14 depending on use. Single types of emission are preferred.
The detector counter is designed to capture and count all emissions continuously and individually. Scintillator counters are preferred. Radiation from extraneous sources is excluded, subtracted from the count or maintained constant in quality and quantity.
Elapsed time is displayed as decay event counts or directly as UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE TIME-INTERVALS.






Search report