Question

Could someone explain to me the concept of Half-life for radioactive elements?

Answer 1

Half-life is defined as the amount of time it takes for half of an isotope to change into another isotope. ... This means that, like the decay constant, the half-life gives an estimate of the stability of a particular radioactive substance, and it can thus be used to identify unknown isotopes.

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Answer 2

Explanation:

Half-life, in radioactivity, the interval of time required for one-half of the atomic nuclei of a radioactive sample to decay (change spontaneously into other nuclear species by emitting particles and energy), or, equivalently, the time interval required for the number of disintegrations per second of a radioactive material to decrease by one-half. The radioactive isotope cobalt-60, which is used for radiotherapy, has, for example, a half-life of 5.26 years. Thus after that interval, a sample originally containing 8 g of cobalt-60 would contain only 4 g of cobalt-60 and would emit only half as much radiation. After another interval of 5.26 years, the sample would contain only 2 g of cobalt-60. Neither the volume nor the mass of the original sample visibly decreases, however, because the unstable cobalt-60 nuclei decay into stable nickel-60 nuclei, which remain with the still-undecayed cobalt.

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