Finding the Half Life From Activity

[Procrastinate]

I am meant to deduce the half life from this table (as attached.) I was under the impression that the half life would occur when the initial activity was halved but my answer of 2.34 minutes (from halving the initial activity of 36506) is wrong. Instead, the answer the textbook got was 1 minute. What did I do wrong?

 

[Kurdt]

Are you sure these things are related? How can the answer be in minutes when the timing was over hours?

 

[Procrastinate]

The answer was one minute and I got an 2.34 hours (my mistake.) I'm not sure what to do now...

 

[Dadface]

The answer of one minute does not match with this question.A quick glance at the table shows the answer is over two hours.

 

[rwisz]

Based on the provided table, it appears that the initial activity was measured at 36506 counts per minute (cpm) and after 1 minute, the activity was measured at 18253 cpm. Based on this information, it is correct to assume that the half life occurred at 1 minute, as the initial activity was halved at this time. Therefore, the textbook's answer of 1 minute is correct.

It is possible that you may have made a calculation error when halving the initial activity of 36506 cpm. Double check your calculations to ensure accuracy. Additionally, it is important to note that the half life may not always occur exactly when the initial activity is halved. It is possible for there to be some deviation due to experimental error or other factors. However, in this case, the half life does appear to have occurred at 1 minute.