The half-life of a radioactive nuclide is 100 hours. The fraction of original activity that will remain after 150 hours would be :
Correct Answer :
1/2√ 2
Solution :
The correct option is 1/2√2.
Step-by-step Derivation and Explanation:
Radioactive decay follows first-order kinetics. The relationship between the remaining activity of a radioactive sample and its initial activity after a certain time is given by the formula:
where:
- is the activity remaining after time .
- is the initial activity at .
- is the fraction of original activity that remains.
- is the number of half-lives that have elapsed.
Step 1: Calculate the number of half-lives ()
The number of half-lives is the total elapsed time divided by the half-life duration:
Given:
- Half-life,
- Total time,
Substituting these values:
Step 2: Calculate the remaining fraction
Substitute the value of back into the fraction formula:
This expression can be simplified as follows:
Since , we have:
Thus, the fraction of the original activity remaining after 150 hours is .
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