Concept explainers
Interpretation:
Time required for the polonium-238 radioisotope to decrease to
Concept Introduction:
For a radioactive isotope, the relative instability is expressed in terms of half-life. Half-life is the time required for half of the given quantity of the radioisotope to undergo radioactive decay. Half-life of the radioactive isotope is independent of the quantity of the radioactive isotope. Half-life of a radioactive isotope can be expressed as,
Number of disintegrations per unit time is known as the activity of the sample. The rate of radioactive decay can be expressed as,
Where,
If initial activity of the sample is
Rearranging equation (3) as shown below,
Considering equation (2), the equation (3) can be rewritten in terms of fraction of radioactive atoms that is present after time
Trending nowThis is a popular solution!
Chapter 18 Solutions
Chemistry: The Molecular Science
- Principles of Modern ChemistryChemistryISBN:9781305079113Author:David W. Oxtoby, H. Pat Gillis, Laurie J. ButlerPublisher:Cengage LearningChemistry: The Molecular ScienceChemistryISBN:9781285199047Author:John W. Moore, Conrad L. StanitskiPublisher:Cengage LearningChemistry for Today: General, Organic, and Bioche...ChemistryISBN:9781305960060Author:Spencer L. Seager, Michael R. Slabaugh, Maren S. HansenPublisher:Cengage Learning
- Chemistry: Principles and PracticeChemistryISBN:9780534420123Author:Daniel L. Reger, Scott R. Goode, David W. Ball, Edward MercerPublisher:Cengage LearningChemistry & Chemical ReactivityChemistryISBN:9781337399074Author:John C. Kotz, Paul M. Treichel, John Townsend, David TreichelPublisher:Cengage LearningChemistry: Matter and ChangeChemistryISBN:9780078746376Author:Dinah Zike, Laurel Dingrando, Nicholas Hainen, Cheryl WistromPublisher:Glencoe/McGraw-Hill School Pub Co