For 1000k atoms I will have a 500k after 1 half life, and 250k after 2 half lives. But when I try to do the same with fractions something doesn’t add up. Because after “quarter life” i will have 750k atoms, but then I’ll have 562500 atoms, because of 750k multiplied by 0.75. So quarter life should be equal to 0.5 of half life, but half life doesn’t work that way. I am confused.
In: Physics
Half-life has just become the standard measure of exponential decay. Sure you can use quarter life or whatever, and it can be mathematically recalculated, but we’ve chosen half-life as a standard — nothing particularly special about it.
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