Question

What happens during one half-life of a radioactive isotope?

Answer 1

What happens during on half-life of a radioactive isotope is the following: Not only does it decay by giving off energy and matter, but it also decays at a rate that is characteristic to itself. The rate at which a radioactive isotope decays is measured in half-life. The term half-life is defined as the time it takes for one-half of the atoms of a radioactive material to disintegrate.

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Answer 2

In the field of radioactivity, the half-life is usually defined as the time required by an unstable radioactive isotope to disintegrate half of its initial composition. For different radioactive isotope elements, this value of half-life is different.

For example, the half-life of uranium-238 is approximately 4.5 billion years and the half-life of Carbon-14 is nearly 5700 years.

During the time of one half-life of a radioactive isotope, half of the parent atoms are disintegrated and forms a comparatively stable daughter isotope. This means that half of the initial concentration of the unstable isotope is reduced.