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What is the difference between radioactive decay and radioactivity?

Infographics: Why do people like misinformational radioactivity graphics?

  • Does nobody realize that these popular graphics about radioactivity misinform people? You can see in their charts: 'for a year', 'for a day', 'one day dose', 'yearly'... Either compare all radioactivity doses within the same time frame - say for a year (plus calculating how often the exposure might take place) - normalize the data - or just don't mislead people. I'm referring to these infographics made by Randall Munroe (XKCD) and David McCandless - Randall Munroe http://blog.xkcd.com/2011/03/19/radiation-chart/ - David McCandless http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/radiation-dosage-chart/ I had a professor at university who showed us misleading infographics like these, who were made by the Nazis or Sowjetunion for propaganda. There is no difference if you make these graphics 'to give an idea' or if you mislead people on purpose. You still mislead people in both ways. Either do it right or don't do it.

  • Answer:

    You make a good point, but I'll make a better argument for the validity of the charts. Here are some examples from the chart: 1 arm x-ray Chest CT scan Airplane flight from New York to LA EPA yearly release target for a nuclear power plant Living in a stone, brick or concrete building for a year Now an arm x-ray takes about 1 second of exposure.  A Chest CT-scan takes about 15 minutes.  An airplane flight from NY to LA - what, 6 hours?  The other two items are annual - 1 year. Would it make sense to say you're having an x-ray for 1-year?  Would it make sense to live an a stone building for 1 second?  Of course not.  You can't normalize these all on the same time scale because it would be ridiculous.  These charts are intended to give an idea of common scenarios.  They are perfectly valid.

Andrew Lemke at Quora Visit the source

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The scales are adapted to the level of "likely exposure" ... think of it this way, usually you think of an X-axis "input" variable, say "activity" which results in a Y-Axis "result," like "radiation level".   These charts reverse that mental convention and in this case, the radiation level is the input variable and the activity through which you'd achieve that radiation level is the output result.  The McCnadless graphic is so misleading it's almost criminal for him to produce it (doubly so if he calls himself an information designer).  The Munroe graphic is visually boring but accurate and informative.

David Thiel

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