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A half-life is the time taken for the radioactivity of a material to fall to half its original value. A material can undergo infinite half-lives because each time it falls to half the next half-life falls to half of that half:
No half-lives have elapsed when radioactivity is at the original amount; 1/1.
1 half-life is when radioactivity is at 1/2
2 half-lives is when radioactivity is at 1/4.
3 half-lives is when radioactivity is at 1/8.
4 half-lives is when radioactivity is at 1/16.
And so on.
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Can the half life of a radioactive isotope decrease as the isotope decays?
No, the half-life of a radioactive isotope does not decrease as the isotope decays. That half-life remains constant. It's the amount of the substance that decreases as the isotope decays.
What is an isotope that the time it takes it to decay to half its original mass?
c.half-life
What is the time needed for half of a radioactive isotope to break down to form daughter isotope?
It's called "half life".
What does the half life tell about a radiosotope?
Its stability. The longer the half-life, the more stable is the isotope.
How are radioactive isotopes used determine the absolute age of igneous rock?
Answer : When the isotopes decay, scientists can find out how old the rock is depending on the radioactive isotope's half-life. Explanation: Radioactive isotopes are unstable and will decay. For example, when humans die carbon-14 decays. The isotopes will decay into a stable isotope over time. Scientists can tell how old the rock was from looking at the radioactive isotope's half-life, which tells them how long it would take for there to be half the radioactive isotope and half the stable isotope. At the next half-life there will be 25% of the radioactive isotope and 75% of the stable isotope. At the next half life there will be 12.5% radioactive and 87.5% stable. Example: Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope with a half life of 5,730 years. How old would carbon-14 be when there is 75% carbon-14 in the rock? 75% is half of the time before the half-life, so it would be 2,365 years. Hope this helps. Half life helps scientists find how much the isotope has decayed and the age of the rock.
Isotope A has half-life of seconds and isotope B has a half-life of millions of years which isotope is more radioactive?
Isotope A
What is the half life of an isotope?
The half-life of a radioactive isotope is the amount of time it takes for one-half of the radioactive isotope to decay. The half-life of a specific radioactive isotope is constant; it is unaffected by conditions and is independent of the initial amount of that isotope.
What do isotope and half life have in common?
Each (unstable) isotope has a distinctive half-life.
Can the half life of a radioactive isotope decrease as the isotope decays?
No, the half-life of a radioactive isotope does not decrease as the isotope decays. That half-life remains constant. It's the amount of the substance that decreases as the isotope decays.
If the half-life of a radioactive substance is 10 hours how long will it take for 50 percent of it to decay?
The half-life of a radioactive isotope is defined as the time taken for the isotope to decay to half of its initial mass. So to decay to 50 percent of its initial mass will take one half-life of the isotope. One half-life of the isotope is 10 hours so the time taken to decay is also 10 hours.
What is half life of a isotope?
The half life of an isotope refers to the rate at which a radioactive isotope undergoes radioactive decay. Specifically, it is the amount of time it takes for half of a given sample of a radioactive isotope to decay.
What information does the half-life of a radioisotope give?
It tells how long it takes for a radioactive isotope to become a daughter element.
What affects the half life?
The type of isotope
What is argon's half-life?
It depends if it is an isotope or not
What property of a radioactive isotope is the length of time it takes half of the nuclei to decay?
This is called the "half-life" of the isotope.
After 36.9 years a sample of hydrogen contains one-eighth the amount it contained originally what is the half-life of the isotope?
The half-life of the isotope is 12.3.
How long will it take half of a radioactive sample to decay?
The length of time depends on the element and isotope, but the point at which half of the sample has decayed is known as the half-life.
