It’s been little over 100 years since we discovered radioactivity. How then do we know the half life of elements that have half lives in hundreds plus years?
In: 21
Hi!
The math is easy.
You don’t have to way for 50% to be gone (1/2 life)
[This page has the math](https://www.cuemath.com/half-life-formula/)
Basically for every radioactive substance there is a “rate of decay” number that makes the formula look like simple.
If you want to figure out the time for 0.0000001 percent to decay, the math is similar with just different numbers.
These elements with long half lives they just get the decay rate and then recalculate for 1/2 life.
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