curie1
/ˈkjʊəri
/(abbreviation Ci)
noun (plural curies)
1A unit of radioactivity, corresponding to 3.7 × 1010 disintegrations per second.The activity (rate of decay) of Rn is expressed in units called curies....
- The sediment around its shores blew 5 million curies of radioactive dust over 25,000 square kilometres, irradiating 500,000 people.
- In 1957, there was an explosion at a waste storage facility that blew 2 million curies of radiation into the atmosphere.
1.1The quantity of radioactive substance that emits one curie of activity: a curie of any radioactive element disintegrates at the same rate as 1 gram of natural radium...
- Each generator contains up to 40,000 curies of highly radioactive material.
- During that time I used to handle vials with over 5 curies (which is about 100 times more than what you inquire about) of this radioactive substance on almost daily basis.
- The new tenants discovered an old irradiator containing 19 curies of cobalt-60.
Origin
Early 20th century: named after Pierre and Marie Curie.
Rhymes
Curie2
/ˈkjʊəri/Marie (1867–1934), Polish-born French physicist, and Pierre (1859–1906), French physicist, pioneers of radioactivity. Working together on the mineral pitchblende, they discovered the elements polonium and radium, for which they shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with A.-H. Becquerel. After her husband’s accidental death Marie received another Nobel Prize (for chemistry) in 1911 for her isolation of radium. She died of leukaemia, caused by prolonged exposure to radioactive materials.