Overview
This guide will teach you how to correctly Half Life.
Introduction
Half-life (symbol t1⁄2) is the time required for a quantity to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable atoms survive. The term is also used more generally to characterize any type of exponential or non-exponential decay.
Half-life is constant over the lifetime of an exponentially decaying quantity, and it is a characteristic unit for the exponential decay equation. The accompanying table shows the reduction of a quantity as a function of the number of half-lives elapsed.
Formula for Half Life
An exponential decay can be described by any of the following three equivalent formulas:
How to calculate Half Life
Let’s learn this step-by-step.
If you have learnt the basics, and are good at it, here’s how you go about solving.
1. Understand exponential decay.
2. Rewrite the function in terms of half-life.
3. Incorporate the initial amount.
4. Solve for the half-life.
With that, its the end of this section.
Doubts
Go ask your teacher.
Conclusion
Hope you were helped by this guide.