What is the reason radioactive decay is measured in half-life’s instead of just using the elements “full-life”?

Question

Is there something special about the halfway point? Does the decay happen at a steady pace or exponentially?

In: 910

Answer 1

I like to think of Radioactive decay like an onion. Consider each half-life like a layer of an onion, but each layer is equivalent to half of its original size.

So lets the onion has a half-life of 5 years. After 5 years, is will lose a layer, which equivalent to have its size. The size is reduced by half, but subsequent layers will take another 5 years to shed and so on until there are no more layers to shed