Question

a 22 gram sample of a substance that's used to sterilize surgical instruments has a k value of 0.138 find the substance's half life in days round your answer to the nearest tenth

Answer 1

The half-life formula is given as:

t(1/2) = (ln 2) / k

where k is the decay constant.

Given:

mass of substance = 22 g

k = 0.138

We need to find t(1/2) in days.

First, we need to find the decay rate, λ, which is related to k as follows:

λ = k / ln 2

λ = 0.138 / ln 2

λ ≈ 0.199

Now we can substitute λ into the half-life formula to get:

t(1/2) = (ln 2) / λ

t(1/2) = (ln 2) / 0.199

t(1/2) ≈ 3.5 days (rounded to the nearest tenth)

Therefore, the substance's half-life is approximately 3.5 days.