How long do you think it would take for the material to decay to 23% (without doing the actual calculation), make an explanation using the half-life being 12 years

Answer :

Solution

The exponential decay can be expressed as;

[tex]A(t)=A_0(\frac{1}{2})^{^{\frac{t}{t_{half}}}}[/tex][tex]\begin{gathered} \Rightarrow0.23=(\frac{1}{2})^{\frac{t}{12}} \\ \\ \Rightarrow\ln(0.23)=\frac{t}{12}\ln(\frac{1}{2}) \\ \\ \Rightarrow t=\frac{12\times\ln(0.23)}{\ln(\frac{1}{2})}=25 \end{gathered}[/tex]

Hence, it will take about 25 years. (By calculation)

By Inspection.

12 years is 50%

24 years is 25%

It will take about 24 years to decay to 23%

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