The half-life of a pesticide determines its persistence in the environment. A common pesticide degrades in a first-order process with a rate constant of 6.5 1/hours. What is the half-life in hours of the breakdown reaction? Enter to 4 decimal places.

0.1066 hours

Explanation:

A common pesticide degrades in a first-order process with a rate constant (k) of 6.5 1/hours. We can calculate its half-life (t1/2), that is, the times that it takes for its concentration to be halved, using the following expression.

t1/2 = ln2/k

t1/2 = ln2/6.5 h⁻¹

t1/2 = 0.1066 h

The half-life of the pesticide is 0.1066 hours.