High School

If the mass of a sample of radioactive astatine-218 decays from 64.5 micrograms to 7.48 micrograms in 6.22 seconds, what is the half-life of astatine-218?

Answer :

To find the half-life of astatine-218, we can use the formula:

t1/2 = (ln(2) / λ)

Where t1/2 is the half-life, ln is the natural logarithm, and λ is the decay constant.

Given that the mass of the sample decays from 64.5 micrograms to 7.48 micrograms in 6.22 seconds, we can calculate the decay constant using the formula:

N = N0 * e^(-λt)

Where N is the final mass, N0 is the initial mass, e is the base of the natural logarithm, λ is the decay constant, and t is the time.

Plugging in the values, we have:

7.48 = 64.5 * e^(-λ * 6.22)

Solving for λ, we find:

λ = -ln(7.48/64.5) / 6.22

Now that we have the decay constant, we can calculate the half-life using the formula:

t1/2 = (ln(2) / λ)

Plugging in the value of λ, we get:

t1/2 = ln(2) / (-ln(7.48/64.5) / 6.22)

Calculating this value, we find that the half-life of astatine-218 is approximately 8.62 seconds.

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