A Nerdy Scotch-Drinking Physicist, Nicola, Suspected That the 50-Year-Old Scotch

question 13

Multiple Choice

A nerdy Scotch-drinking physicist, Nicola, suspected that the 50-year-old Scotch she purchased was misrepresented. Reasoning that water must contain the radioactive hydrogen isotope, tritium, because this isotope is produced in the atmosphere by cosmic rays, she decided she could use the tritium concentration in the Scotch to determine when it was bottled. She found that the tritium concentration in the Scotch was only 64% that of the tritium concentration in the water on the Isle of Islay where the Scotch was bottled. How old, really, was this 50-year-old Scotch? The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years.

• A)6 years
• B)8 years
• C)12 years
• D)24 years
• E)It really was 50 years old.

---

Definitions:

Testosterone

A steroid hormone that stimulates development of male secondary sexual characteristics, produced mainly in the testes but also in the ovaries and adrenal cortex.

Aggression

Behavior intended to harm or intimidate others, which can be physical, verbal, or non-verbal.

Positively Correlated

A relationship between two variables where both variables move in the same direction, meaning as one variable increases, the other also increases, or as one decreases, the other also decreases.

Hours Spent Watching Television

A measure often used in research to assess the amount of time individuals dedicate to watching TV, which can impact various aspects of health and behavior.