I’m sure there is an easy answer to this, but for some reason I can’t wrap my head around how a sample of an element can ever decay all the way to zero, when measured in half lives. It seems like you could always split a number in half, it would just be infinitesimally small.
In: Chemistry
Because in reality, a half life is actually a measure of statistical probability.
At any given time, any one atom of an unstable isotope can or cannot decay. The chance of it decaying is what determines the half-life.
The only reason half-life’s are so stable and reliable is because you are talkin about insanely large populations of atoms. Billions of billions of billions of them. Theoretically, every single atom in a mass of unstable matter could all undergo decay at the same time, but that is so unlikely we don’t really consider it possible.
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