The curie, a unit of radioactivity based on radium, has been replaced by the becquerel in most applications. Radioactivity is measured by disintegrations per second, with one curie equaling 37 billion disintegrations per second. The becquerel is used in the international unit system, with prefixes indicating orders of magnitude.
A curie is a unit of radioactivity that has been replaced with the becquerel in most applications, because the becquerel fits better into the standardized unit system that many nations have adopted. Curies are used to provide information about how radioactive a given isotope is, with this information used to determine what type of safety precautions should be followed around the isotope to avoid injury. Tools for converting between curie and becquerel measurements are readily available online.
When measuring radioactivity, people observe how many times per second an unstable nucleus emits ionizing particles. The more particles emitted per second, the more radioactive the isotope. Radioactivity, in other words, is measured by disintegrations per second. The number of disintegrations per second varies partly on a time scale and partly on the amount of isotope present. Because the value can change over time, sometimes values are provided within a particular time scale.
In the case of the curie, one curie equals the amount of an isotope needed to produce 37 billion disintegrations per second. Abbreviated as Ci, the higher the number, the more disintegrations occur each second and the greater the radioactivity. Something with 1,000 Ci of a radioactive element, for example, is more dangerous than something with 100 Ci. Radioactive materials are commonly packaged with warnings stating their level of radioactivity so that people are aware of the risk involved.
Curie was originally based on the radioactivity of a single gram of radium, an element studied by Peter and Marie Curie. This was used as the basis of the measurement for some time before researchers moved on to stating that curie was equivalent to 3.7 times 1010 disintegrations per second, a measurement roughly equivalent to that of radium. In the system of international units preferred by many researchers, the becquerel (Bq) is used. One becquerel equals one disintegration per second, or 2.7 times 10-11 curies. A curie, by contrast, is 37 billion becquerels.
Prefixes can be added to this unit of measure to convey orders of magnitude, as seen with kilocuries, millicuries, and microcuries. The same kinds of prefixes can be seen in use with the becquerel, for convenience, so that people don’t have to write a number like 100,000,000 becquerels (which equals 100 megabecquerels). Because the becquerel is such a small unit of radioactivity, it is common to see it listed with a prefix indicating an order of magnitude higher.
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