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After 11.5 days, 12.5% of a sample of radon-222 that originally weighed 42g remains. What is the half-life of this isotope?

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Half-life is defined as the amount of time it takes a given quantity to decrease to half of its initial value. The equation to describe the decay is
Nt=N0(1/2)
^(t/t(1/2)) where N0 is the initial quantity, Nt is the remaining quantity after time t, t1/2 is the half-time. So work out the equation, t1/2 = t (-ln2)/ln(Nt/N0) = 11.5*(-ln2)/ln(12.5/100) = 3.83 days
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