What is half-life?
· The amount of time it takes for half of a substance to undergo some specified process
· Radioactive elements have different isotopes that decay at different rates
o Varies with the type of isotopes
o Short half-life
§ Oxygen (71 seconds)
o Long half-life
§ Thallium(1.4 × 10 10 years)
§ Carbon(5,730 years)
· Calculated by dividing 0.693 by the decay constant
o Decay constant - dividing the number of observed disintegrations per unit time by the number of radioactive nuclei in the sample
o Usually given the symbol k or λ
· Is a measure of how reactive it is
o Terms of radioactive decay
o Participation in specific reactions
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