HALF-LIFE QUESTIONS:

EXAMPLES:
1. What is the half-life of 100.0 grams sample of nitrogen 16 that decays to 12.5 grams of nitrogen 16 in 21.6
seconds?
ANS: 7.20 S
2. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5730 years. How much of a 144-gram sample of carbon 14 would remain after
1.719 × 104 years?
ANS: 18.00 g
3. A 64 grams sample of germanium 66 is left undisturbed for 12.5 hours. At the end of that. Only 2.0 grams
remain. What is the half-life of the material?
ANS: 2.5 hours
4. The half-life of cesium 137 is 30.2 years. If the initial mass of a sample of season 137 is 1.000 kilogram how
much will remain after 151 years?
ANS: 0.03125 kg
5. Given that the half-life of Carbon 14 is 5730 years that’s one alive would have contained 24 grams of cover of
carbon forty. It now contains 1.5 grams of Carbon-14. How old is the sample?
ANS: 22,920 years (4 half-lives times 5730)

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6. A certain radioactive substance has a half-life of 900 years. If we begin with 100 grams of the substance, find an
expression for the amount of the substance that remains after 200 years.
7. The half-life of a radioactive substance is 3200 years. Find the quantity Q(t) of the substance left at time t > 0 if
Q(0) = 20 g.
8. If 12 grams of a certain radioactive substance decays to 9 grams in 5000 years, then what is the half-life of this
substance?
9. A particular radioactive substance has a half-life of 150 years. If you currently have 10 grams of this substance,
how long will it be until only 2 grams remain?
10. A certain radioactive material decays exponentially. The percent, P, of the material left after t years is given by
𝑃𝑡 = 100(1.2)−𝑡 Determine the half-life of the substance.
11. Find the half-life of a radioactive substance if 220 grams of the substance decays to 200 grams in 4 years.
12. A radioactive material has an initial mass 100mg. After two years it is left to 75mg. a) Find the amount of the
material at any time. b) What is the period of its half-life?
13. A radioactive substance decays by the formula 𝐴 = 𝐴𝑜 𝑒 𝑘𝑡 , where 𝐴𝑜 is the initial amount of substance (in grams ).
A is the amount of substance (in grams) after 𝑡 years, and 𝑘 is a constant. The half-life of the substance is 10
years. If we begin with 20g of the substance, how much will be left after 5 years?
14. The amount of a certain radioactive substance remaining after 𝑡 years is given by a function of the form below.
Find the half-life of the substance. Round your answer to the nearest year.
𝑄(𝑡) = 𝑄𝑜 𝑒 −0.031𝑡
15. If the half-life of a certain radioactive substance is 1900 years. Estimate how many years must elapse before
only 55% of the radioactive substance remains?
16. After 1 year, 80% of the initial amount of a radioactive substance remains. What is the half-life of the substance?
17. The half-life of a certain substance is 11.5 years. Suppose that today you have 915 grams of the substance.
(a) How much will be left after 23 years? grams.
(b) How much will be left after 34.5 years? grams.
(c) How long will it take for just 113.5 grams to remain?
18. The radioactive substance, disappearium, has a half-life of 41 days. A certain quantity of disappearium decays
ln⁡(3)
according to the formula 𝐴(𝑡) = 19683𝑒 − 41 𝑡 where 𝐴(𝑡) is the amount of disappearium in grams after 𝑡 days.
a) How much disappearium is there initially when t = 0.
b) How much of the disappearium will be left after 164 days?
c) How long will it take for there to be nine grams of disappearium left?