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12.2: Background

Introductory Chemistry At Home Labs · LibreTexts

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    From LibreTexts, under CC BY-NC-SA, as the source states it; its equations are written in TeX, which the PDF shows typeset. This page at LibreTexts.

    The half-life a radioactive element is the amount of time required for one half of the original material to decay. The rate of decay is different for every radioactive isotope.[1] Some decay very quickly, such as radium-215, which has a half-life of 1.55 ms. Others take a very long time to decay, such as bismuth-209, which has a half-life of 1.90*1019 years!

    In this experiment, you will investigate exponential decay. However, given that using radioactive material at home would be unsafe, you will use candy as a model.

    [1] Information about half-lives of different isotopes can be found at Ptable.com - Isotopes - Count.

    This page titled 12.2: Background was last modified on Mon, 03 Nov 2025 03:24:07 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Georgia Fritz.