Concept explainers
Interpretation:
The number of the radioactive atoms that would remain after a decay period of
Concept introduction:
The half-life of a substance is the numerical value in which the given radioactive substance is assumed to be reduced to half of its initial number. The half-life for a given substance is represented by t1/2.
In case, the decay of a radioactive substance is exponential, it will remain constant for the life time of the substance.
After each half-life period, the amount of the substance is reduced to half of the initial number.
The amount (for example say number of atoms) of the substance left after the half-life period can be calculated using the formula mentioned below:
In the above equation, ‘Nt’ represents the mass of the radioactive substance after a certain time interval t, ‘N0’ indicates the initial mass of the radioactive material, ‘k’ represents the decay constant and ‘t’ represents the time interval for the half-life (t1/2).
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