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A half-life is the time taken for the radioactivity of a material to fall to half its original value. A material can undergo infinite half-lives because each time it falls to half the next half-life falls to half of that half:
No half-lives have elapsed when radioactivity is at the original amount; 1/1.
1 half-life is when radioactivity is at 1/2
2 half-lives is when radioactivity is at 1/4.
3 half-lives is when radioactivity is at 1/8.
4 half-lives is when radioactivity is at 1/16.
And so on.
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Can the half life of a radioactive isotope decrease as the isotope decays?
No, the half-life of a radioactive isotope is a constant property of that particular isotope and does not change as it decays. The half-life is defined as the time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to decay. Once set, the half-life remains constant regardless of how many atoms have decayed.
What is an isotope that the time it takes it to decay to half its original mass?
c.half-life
What is the time needed for half of a radioactive isotope to break down to form daughter isotope?
It's called "half life".
What does the half life tell about a radiosotope?
Its stability. The longer the half-life, the more stable is the isotope.
How are radioactive isotopes used determine the absolute age of igneous rock?
Answer : When the isotopes decay, scientists can find out how old the rock is depending on the radioactive isotope's half-life. Explanation: Radioactive isotopes are unstable and will decay. For example, when humans die carbon-14 decays. The isotopes will decay into a stable isotope over time. Scientists can tell how old the rock was from looking at the radioactive isotope's half-life, which tells them how long it would take for there to be half the radioactive isotope and half the stable isotope. At the next half-life there will be 25% of the radioactive isotope and 75% of the stable isotope. At the next half life there will be 12.5% radioactive and 87.5% stable. Example: Carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope with a half life of 5,730 years. How old would carbon-14 be when there is 75% carbon-14 in the rock? 75% is half of the time before the half-life, so it would be 2,365 years. Hope this helps. Half life helps scientists find how much the isotope has decayed and the age of the rock.
