The half-life of an isotope of tritium is 4500 days. How many days will it take an amount of tritium to fall to a quarter of its initial mass?

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The half-life of an isotope of tritium is 4500 days. How many days will it take an amount of tritium to fall to a quarter of its initial mass?

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Answer 1 · 2018-04-29T07:23:39

9000 days.

Explanation:

Decay can be described by the following equation:

$M_{0} = initial mass$ $M_0="initial mass"$

$n$ $n$ =number of half lives

$M = M_{0} \times {(\frac{1}{2})}^{n}$ $M=M_0 times (1/2)^n$

$(\frac{1}{4}) = 1 \times {(\frac{1}{2})}^{n}$ $(1/4)=1 times (1/2)^n$

$(\frac{1}{4}) = (\frac{1^{2}}{2^{2}})$ $(1/4)=(1^2/2^2)$

So $n = 2$ $n=2$ , which means 2 half-lives must have passed.

1 half-life is 4500 days, so it must take $2 \times 4500 = 9000$ $2 times 4500=9000$ days for the sample of tritium to decay to a quarter of its initial mass.

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The half-life of an isotope of tritium is 4500 days. How many days will it take an amount of tritium to fall to a quarter of its initial mass?

year 9 question

1 Answer

Explanation:

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