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Half-life is described in time units.

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Why do fewer isotopes decay in each successive half life?

Because each amount is halved over the time it takes for the half life process for instance A Isotope has a half life of 20 years If it starts off with 12,000 then in 20 years it'll be 6,000 (halfed) another 20 years it'll be 3,000 so no matter how much there are, it will always decrease by half


What is the half-life of every radioactive element?

The same element can have different half-lives, for different isotopes. You can find a list at the Wikipedia article "List of radioactive isotopes by half-life". This list is NOT complete; a complete list would have about 3000 nuclides (that is, isotopes).


What is gamma half life?

Most gold is made up of isotopes that have never been observed to undergo radioactive decay and therefore has no known half-life. Some synthetically prepared isotopes of gold may be radioactive and thus have a half-life, the length of which would depend on the particular isotope.


Are there any known isotopes in rutherfordium?

Yes, there are several known isotopes of rutherfordium. The most stable isotope is rutherfordium-267 with a half-life of about 1.3 hours. Other isotopes range from rutherfordium-253 to rutherfordium-267, with varying half-lives and decay modes.


What is half-life as it applies to rocks and fosils?

I believe that the half-life refers to the amount of carbon in it. By knowing the half-life of carbon it can be used to say how old something is. Ofcourse plus or minus a few years. This is where carbon dating comes from. Hope this helps. EDIT: the half-life refers to the time it takes for an element to decay into its daughter element

Related Questions

How many half-lives would be necessary for a sample of parent isotopes to decay to the point that only one-half of the sample is composed of parent isotopes?

It would take one half-life for a sample of parent isotopes to decay to the point where only one-half of the sample is composed of parent isotopes. Each half-life reduces the amount of parent isotopes by half.


What is the half life of arsenic?

Arsenic (in the form of arsenic-75) is a stable element. Only its isotopes have a half-life. As there are many isotopes of every element, and each has a different half life, it is difficult to specify a precise answer. The related link below contains a list of known isotopes and their half lives.


How is rubidum 87 used if its half-life is older than the earth?

The term half life describes the time taken for half of a total amount of radioactive isotopes to decay. However that doesn't mean that they all take exactly that length of time. Some will decay much more quickly than that and some more slowly. As such even though the half life is longer than the age of the earth, some of the Rubidum 87 isotopes will have decayed. Based on the proportion of rubidum 87 to the daughter isotopes you can still use this for dating materials younger than the half life of rubidum 87.


Why do fewer isotopes decay in each successive half life?

Because each amount is halved over the time it takes for the half life process for instance A Isotope has a half life of 20 years If it starts off with 12,000 then in 20 years it'll be 6,000 (halfed) another 20 years it'll be 3,000 so no matter how much there are, it will always decrease by half


State what is meant by half life of radioactive isotopes?

This is the time in which half the the atoms was disintegrated.


What is the half-life of plutonium-239?

Plutonium has 20 isotopes; each isotope has another half-life. Please read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_plutonium.


Uses of isotopes applying with half life?

nothing chemistry is stupid


What is the half-life of every radioactive element?

The same element can have different half-lives, for different isotopes. You can find a list at the Wikipedia article "List of radioactive isotopes by half-life". This list is NOT complete; a complete list would have about 3000 nuclides (that is, isotopes).


How many unstable isotophes are in xenon?

The number of unstable isotopes cannot be determined. Xenon has 9 stable or primordial isotopes. These include isotopes whose half-life is greater than 80 million years which is long enough for some of the atoms to have survived. It is also possible that so-called stable isotopes are not really stable but have half-lives of more than 10^22 years.Of the 9 Xenon isotopes,134Xe has a half-life of 1.1*10^16 years;136Xe has a half-life of 8.5*10^21 years;124Xe has a half-life of 1*10^17 years.


What is gamma half life?

Most gold is made up of isotopes that have never been observed to undergo radioactive decay and therefore has no known half-life. Some synthetically prepared isotopes of gold may be radioactive and thus have a half-life, the length of which would depend on the particular isotope.


Among the following radioactive parent isotopes, which has the shortest half-life?

The radioactive parent isotope with the shortest half-life among the options provided.


What is the calculation of radioactive isotopes?

Examples characteristics: half life, specific activity, radiotoxicity.