HALF LIFE

Aisyah Anis Auni Natasya Noorasshiqkin

LETS LOOK BACK

Radioactive decay is a random process. All the unstable nuclei have the same probability to decay at a certain instant. It is not possible to predict when a particular nucleus is going to decay. The unstable nuclei will decay at dif ferent times. Therefore, the number of undecayed nuclei decreases with time.

SO WHAT IS HALF LIFE?

The half life of a radioactive sample is the time taken for the number of undecayed nuclei in the sample to be reduced to half of its original number.

EXAMPLE :
Xenon-140 has a half life of 40 minutes. It takes 40 minutes for the number of undecayed nuclei to decrease to half its original number.

HALF LIFE OF SOME RADIOACTIVE NUCLIDES

Radioactive nuclide Lithium-8 Krypton-89 Sodium-24 Iodine-131 Half life 0.838 s 3.16 minutes 15 hours 8 days

Cobalt-60 Radium-228
Uranium-235

5.27 years 1600 years

703 million years

EXAMPLE QUESTIONS
1) Tin-108 has a half life of 10.3 minutes. A radioactive sample contains 72 g of tin -108. Determine the mass of tin 108 that has decayed and that has not decayed after 30.9 minutes. After, 30 minutes, 9 g of tin -108 has not decayed and 63 g of tin-108 has decayed. 2) The radioactive atoms in a substance decay to become stable atoms. It was found that after 136 s, 93.75% of the atoms have decayed. What is the half life of the substance? 34 seconds.

HALF LIFE AND ACTIVIT Y

The activity of a radioactive substance is the number of decays per second of the unstable nuclei. A .k.a. decay rate. As the number of undecayed nuclei decreases with time, the activity of the radioactive substance also decreases with time. Measured by a GM tube connected to a ratemeter. EXAMPLE :
A) What is the half life of the sample? B) State the value of T.