Question

In the late nineteenth century, the scientist Marie Curie performed experiments that led to the discovery of radioactive substances. A radioactive substance is a substance that gives off radiation as it decays. Scientists describe the rate at which a radioactive substance decays as its half-life. The half-life of a substance is the amount of time it takes for one-half of the substance to decay. Radium has a half-life of 1600 years. How much radium will be left from a 1000-gram sample after 1600 years?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Half life is the time taken by a radioactive substance to reduce of half of its original size

If the half life of radium is 1600, this means that the original radioactive substance N0 have reduced to N0/2 after 1600 years

if we are given N0 = 1000grams

The amount of the substance that will remain after 1600 years will be N0/2 i.e 1000/2 = 500g

Hence 500 grams of radium will be left after 600years