How do scientists know the half life of a substance when the half life is longer than the time we have known about the substance?
In: Physics
Math.
The half life doesn’t mean that after the half life is up half of the stuff disappears immediately. It is a continuous process.
If you have enough of a material you can measure even small changes over time and then use these to calculate what the change would be over longer time.
Half life is just a convenient label for comparison, not necessarily what is measured in all cases.
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