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21 votes
21 votes
A hospital prepares a 100 mg supply of technetium-99m which has a half-life of 6 hours. How much technetium-99m will remain after 72 hours? Given the equation to represent the scenario, answer the question to the scenario.

\large f\left(x\right)=100\left(0.5\right)^x

**Round to 3 decimal places

mg

User Hermannk
by
2.4k points

1 Answer

20 votes
20 votes

Answer:

0.024 mg to 3 DP's.

Explanation:

In 6 hours one-half of the technetium will be left - that is 1/2 * 100 = 50 mg.

50 = 100(0.5)^1 where 1 means 1 period of 6 hours.

So after 72 hours( 12 periods of 6 hours):

Amount left = 100(0.5)^12

= 0.024414.

User Nhinkle
by
2.9k points