niktemadur@lemmy.world to Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 2 months agoIn particle decay, is there a difference when they say "average lifetime" vs "half life"? Also: in the Large Hadron Collider, how long does a particle collision event (or experiment) last?message-squaremessage-square6fedilinkarrow-up126arrow-down11
arrow-up125arrow-down1message-squareIn particle decay, is there a difference when they say "average lifetime" vs "half life"? Also: in the Large Hadron Collider, how long does a particle collision event (or experiment) last?niktemadur@lemmy.world to Ask Science@lemmy.worldEnglish · 2 months agomessage-square6fedilink
minus-squareAbouBenAdhem@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up6·edit-22 months ago“Average” is ambiguous—it could mean arithmetic mean, geometric mean, median, mode, etc. The half-life is equivalent to the median lifetime, but the name is more self-explanatory (and emphasizes that half the radiation is still there).
minus-squareRagnor@feddit.dklinkfedilinkEnglisharrow-up1·2 months ago“Average” and “median” are not the same thing. Anyone who uses those about the same thing have misunderstood the concepts.
“Average” is ambiguous—it could mean arithmetic mean, geometric mean, median, mode, etc.
The half-life is equivalent to the median lifetime, but the name is more self-explanatory (and emphasizes that half the radiation is still there).
“Average” and “median” are not the same thing. Anyone who uses those about the same thing have misunderstood the concepts.