what is a half-life?
In: Physics
Basically, it is the time it takes for half of something to become inactive. You can use this study the movement of medication through the body, the decay of radioactive substances, and plenty of other things out there.
You usually think of it in terms of radiation. Take a substance that radiates–it’s literally shooting out particles and slowly turning into something else. How long does it take half of substance A to turn into substance B? That’s your half life.
This is useful because, in a sense, the process never ends. Substance A will never FULLY turn into substance B, at least not without a significant period of time passing. Rather, as more of A becomes B, the A that is left will appear to turn to B over a longer and longer period of time as there is less of it remaining. This half life point is useful because it tells you at what point MOST (that is, 50.000000….1%) of it will have changed.
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