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Element X decays radioactively with a half life of 14 minutes. If there are 160 grams of Element X, how long, to the nearest tenth of a minute, would it take the element to decay to 11 grams?

Element X decays radioactively with a half life of 14 minutes. If there are 160 grams-example-1
User Ludovic C
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Final answer:

Element X decays radioactively with a half-life of 14 minutes. It would take approximately 9.6 minutes for the Element X to decay to 11 grams.

Step-by-step explanation:

The decay of Element X can be modeled by an exponential decay equation: N(t) = N0 * (1/2)(t/half-life), where N(t) is the amount of Element X remaining at time t, N0 is the initial amount of Element X, and the half-life is 14 minutes.

To find the time it takes for Element X to decay to 11 grams, we can solve the equation 11 = 160 * (1/2)(t/14) for t.

By taking the logarithm on both sides of the equation and rearranging, we find that t ≈ 9.6 minutes to the nearest tenth of a minute.

User Pragnesh Vaghela
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