Half-life

1. Explain half-life

The time taken for an unstable radioactive nuclide to decay to half its original number is called the half-life.
The symbol for half-life is T1/2


2.Determine half-life from a decay curve
The decay graph is a graph of the number of atom/ reactivity/ mass against time.
The number of number of atom/ reactivity/ mass of radioactive sample decreases exponentially with time.

The half-life of the same radioactive element or nuclide is the same.

Different nuclides have different decay rates, thus different nuclides have different half-life.