Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that decays by about 5% per year. A large bottle of water that contained 520,000 tritium atoms remained undisturbed for 8 years. How much tritium does the bottle contain now?

Question

Vivian Henry

Mathematics

12 April, 13:32

Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that decays by about 5% per year. A large bottle of water that contained 520,000 tritium atoms remained undisturbed for 8 years. How much tritium does the bottle contain now?

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Answers (1)

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Olive Shepard · Answer 1

345,000 to the nearest thousand.

Step-by-step explanation:

5% = 0.05 as a decimal fraction.

After each year goes by, 1 - 0.05 = 0.95 of the tritium is left.

After 8 years Amount of tritium

= 520,000 * (0.95) ^8

= 344,979.