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First, it isn't very accurate to talk about a radioactive "element"; you should talk about radioactive isotopes. Different isotopes of the same element can have very different behavior in this sense. For example, hydrogen-1 and hydrogen-2 are stable, while hydrogen-3 is not (half-life about 19 years).

Individual atoms, in a radioactive isotope, will decay at a random moment. The half-life refers to how long it takes for half of the atoms in a given sample to decay (and convert to some other type of isotope).

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Dahlia Miller

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3y ago

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Related Questions

Is any isotope of lead is radioactive?

many. one example is lead-214 with a halflife of 26.8 minutes.


What is the time needed for half of a sample of a radioactive isotope to break down to form daughter isotopes called?

halflife


What if your cat is radioactive with the same halflife as carbon 14. how many years will it take for three fourths of your cat to degrade?

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Is it true that the half-life of a radioactive isotope decreases as the isotopes decay?

no, halflife is a constant for each isotope's decay process.


How do scientists use the halflife of radioactive isotopes to date rocks and fossils?

The basic idea is to compare the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within a material to the abundance of its decay products; it is known how fast the radioactive isotope decays.


What kind of radioactive waste has the longest half-life?

Uranium has the longest half-life element


How would you describe the isotopes of hydrogen?

Hydrogen has three isotopes: protium (1H), deuterium (2H), and tritium (3H). Protium is the most abundant and consists of one proton and one electron. Deuterium contains one proton, one neutron, and one electron. Tritium has one proton, two neutrons, and one electron.


When was Illadelph Halflife created?

Illadelph Halflife was created on 1996-09-24.


What is halflife about?

Half-life is the time it takes for one half of the radioactive material to decay. It is logarithmic, so after two half-lives, one quarter remains - then one eighth - etc.


All radioactive nuclides of an element have the same half life?

No, halflife is a bulk statistical property of a quantity of an isotope of an element.Individual nuclei do not have halflives, instead they have a probability of decaying at the current moment of time.


What three deuterium of hydrogen?

Your question makes no sense.ordinary hydrogen has 1 proton and no neutronsdeuterium has 1 proton and 1 neutrontritium has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, it is radioactive with a halflife of about 12 yearsThere are more isotopes of hydrogen with more neutrons, but they are radioactive and have such short halflives that they are nearly undetectable.


What radioactive substance has the longest half-life?

One of the radioactive substances with the longest half-life is thorium-232, with a half-life of about 14 billion years. Another example is uranium-238, which has a half-life of about 4.5 billion years.