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Physics 25 Online
OpenStudy (anonymous):

The half-life of a radioisotope is the amount of time it takes for

OpenStudy (michele_laino):

please note that, the decay law of a radioactive sample containing N atoms, is: \[N(t)=N _{0}e ^{-t/\tau} \] where tau is the half-life, and N_0 is the number of radio-isotopes at initial time, namely t=0. So when t= tau, from the above equation, we have: \[N(\tau)=N _{0}e ^{-1}=\frac{ N _{0} }{ e }\] in other words, the half-life is the necessary time for which the numbers of radio-isotopes reduce itself by a factor 1/e

OpenStudy (michele_laino):

@QuishaBumpass

OpenStudy (anonymous):

The half-life of a radioisotope is the amount of time it takes for half the sample to decay.

OpenStudy (michele_laino):

@Rrth1268 you are right! Sorry @QuishaBumpass

OpenStudy (michele_laino):

as @Rrth1268 said by definition half-life is the amount of time for half the sample to decay. If I call T the half-life, we can write: \[N _{0}e ^{-T/\tau}=\frac{ N _{0} }{ 2 }\] from which: \[T= \tau *\log 2=\tau* 0.693\]

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