Question

26. Your mother will soon undergo some medical testing that will require her to swallow a radioactive

isotope as a tracer. She is nervous about having a radioactive substance in her body even though the

radiologist told her not to worry, as the isotope has a half-life of only 7 minutes. Explain to her what

a half-life is, and the significance of the half-life being 7 minutes.

Answer 1

Most radioactive materials decay and they mostly have a decay rate. The time it takes for half of a radioactive material to decay is called half life.

The 7 minute significance of half-life simply points to the total time it takes after which half of the radioactive material would have completely decayed,