Half-Life

Half-Life Time required for ½ of any given mass radioactive nuclei to decay Characteristic for each isotope Ranges from fractions of second to billions of years Not affected by chemical or physical environment

Half-Life Map 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 4 8 16 32 0 1 2 3 4 5 Minitial Fraction mass remaining # of half-lives 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 4 8 16 32 0 1 2 3 4 5 Minitial  multiply by fraction Mfinal  multiply by denominator

half-lives # HL = ___time elapsed___ length of 1 half-life [see Table N]