P2 6.5 Half-Life
- Created by: kayleigh_p
- Created on: 10-04-15 19:14
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- Half-Life
- Radioactivity can be measured using the count rate from it
- The radioactivity of a sample decreases over time
- How quickly the count rate falls to nearly zero depends on the isotope
- Some take a few minutes, whilst others take millions of years
- We use the idea of half-life to measure how quickly the radioactivity decreases
- It is the time taken for the count rate from the original isotope to fall to half its initial value
- It can also be described as the time it takes for the number of unstable nuclei in a sample to halve
- The half-life is the same for any sample of a particular isotope
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