Half-Life Period

Unlimited Tutoring & Homework Help Instant Help. Connect to a Tutor Now. »    K-12, College and AP Exams 24 x 7 Private Tutoring

The time required for the decay of the radioactive element to one half of its original amount is called Half-Life Period. It is denoted by t_1/2.

Putting these values in equation (iii), we get

Thus it is evident that t_1/2 of an element does not depend on the initial amount of radioactive element but depends on the value of l.

The t_1/2 of a particular radioactive isotope is a characteristic constant of that isotope. Values of t_1/2 range from millions of years

The disintegration rate is also referred to as activity. The SI unit of radioactivity is becquerel (Bq) named after Antoine Becquerel, which is equal to one disintegration per second. The older unit, curie, named after Marie Curie is still used, One Curie (Ci) is defined as the amount of radioactive isotope that give 3.7 x 10¹⁰ disintegrations per second. This is the activity associated with 1g of radium-225 with half - life of 1600 years).

Thus 1 Ci = 3.7 x 10¹⁰ disintegration s^-1

= 3.7 x 10¹⁰ Bq.