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Another substance has a half-life of 3 hours.
What fraction of the atoms WILL have decayed after 6 hours?

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User Ceekay
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1 Answer

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Halflife is the time taken by a radioactive substance by half its original mass. In this case the half life of the substance is 3 hours.
Therefore; New mass = Original mass × (1/2)^n where n is the number of half lives. In this case, the half life is 3 hours and therefore; the number of half lives in 6 hours will be two.
= if the original mass is 100%
new mass = 100 × (1/2)^2
= 100 × 1/4 = 25%
The remaining mass will be 1/4 of the original mass, meaning a fraction of 3/4 of the initial mass will have decayed.
Thus; the answer is 3/4












User Laurens Holst
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