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The half-life of a Radioactive sample is 80 hrs. Initially, there are 6,000,0000 nuclei in the sample. How many nuclei will remain after 10 days?

A) 1,500,000
B) 2,500,000
C) 3,750,000
D) 4,500,000

User TheSeeker
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1 Answer

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Final answer:

The number of radioactive nuclei remaining after 10 days, with a half-life of 80 hours, is found to be 750,000. The provided multiple-choice answers do not match this result, indicating an error in the question's options.

Step-by-step explanation:

The question involves calculating the number of radioactive nuclei remaining after a certain period of time, given the half-life of the sample. Since the half-life of the radioactive sample is 80 hours, and 10 days have passed, we first convert days to hours: 10 days × 24 hours/day = 240 hours. Next, we determine how many half-lives have passed in this time: 240 hours ÷ 80 hours/half-life = 3 half-lives.

After each half-life, the number of radioactive nuclei is halved. Therefore, after one half-life, the number will be halved once, after two half-lives, halved twice, and so on. After 3 half-lives, the number of nuclei remaining is calculated as follows:





Therefore, after 10 days, there will be 750,000 nuclei remaining in the sample. The correct answer to the question is none of the provided options. There appears to be a mistake in the options given.

User StanleyD
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