Name: ____________________________________ Honors Chemistry Spring 2015

Problem Set: Half-life

1 n t total
()
m final=minitial ∙
2
∧n=
t half −life
1. Gold-198 is being investigated as an injectable cancer therapy. Au-198 is known to undergo beta decay.
a. Write and balance the nuclear decay equation for Au-198.

b. What mass of a 100.0 g sample of Au-198 is left after 8.10 days, if its half-life is 2.70 days?

2. A 50.0 g sample of N-16 decays to 12.5 g in 14.4

seconds. What is its half-life?

3. Potassium-42 has a half-life of 12.4 hours. How

much of a 0.750 kg sample is left after 62.0 hours?
Name: ____________________________________ Honors Chemistry Spring 2015

4. Technetium-99 is a long-lived product of uranium fission, and is the most abundant isotope present in nuclear
waste. Tc-99 undergoes beta decay with no gamma radiation associated. What is the half-life of Tc-99 if a 0.500
kg sample decays to 0.0625 kg in 6.39 x 10 5 years?
Name: ____________________________________ Honors Chemistry Spring 2015