After three half-lives of an isotope, 1 billion (one-eighth) of the original isotope's atoms still remain in a certain amount of this element. How many atoms of the daughter product would you expect to be present?

Question

Daisy Conner

Physics

12 April, 04:24

After three half-lives of an isotope, 1 billion (one-eighth) of the original isotope's atoms still remain in a certain amount of this element. How many atoms of the daughter product would you expect to be present?

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Gloria Hunt · Answer 1

The half-life is simply the amount of time it takes for half of the isotope to decay into something else.

After 1 half-life, half of the original sample remains. After a second half-life, half of that part remains or 1/4 of the original ... after 3 half-lives, 1/8 remains and so on.

In your example, ut started with 8 billion atoms. After one half-life, there was 4 billion. After a second half-life, there was 2 billion and after 3, one billion remain.