Question

A new radioactive material has been discovered called texanium, which has a half-life of 50 years. How long (in years) will it take for 85

Answer 1

Texanium, with a half-life of 50 years, will take approximately 200 years for 85% of it to decay.

Step-by-step explanation:

The half-life of a radioactive material is the time it takes for half of the radioactive nuclei in a sample to decay. In the case of texanium, with a half-life of 50 years, after every 50 years, half of the texanium will decay and the other half will remain.

So, to find out how long it will take for 85% of the texanium to decay, we can use the concept of half-life and solve for the number of half-lives.

Let's assume we start with 100 units of texanium. After one half-life, we will have 50 units remaining. After two half-lives, we will have 25 units remaining. After three half-lives, we will have 12.5 units remaining.

Using this pattern, we can see that after four half-lives, we will have approximately 6.25 units of texanium remaining. So, it would take approximately 200 years for 85% of the texanium to decay.