How much Co-60 will remain..

Question

The half life of Co-60 is 5.3 years. How much Co-60 will remain after  1 year in a sample initially containing 10g of Co-60?

 

Please show your solution so that I'll how to solve it.

 

 

Answer 1

Hi Jana,

 

Let's begin by writing the exponential half life decay formula and explaining what each variable means:

 

A = (A₀)(1/2)^t/h

 

A = final amount

A₀ = initial amount

1/2 = rate of change (half life)

t = time associated with final amount

h = time associated with half life

 

According to our problem our unknown is the final amount (A) left after 1 year (t).  We now have everything from the given info in our problem to plug into our formula and calculate our unknown quantity (A):

 

A = (A₀)(1/2)^t/h (our formula)

A = (10)(1/2)^1/5.3 (our formula with plug-ins)

 

A = 8.77 grams (our final answer)

 

Note that we rounded our final answer given by our calculator to the nearest hundredth of a gram.

 

Thanks for the submission of your problem and glad to have been of help.

 

Regards, Jordan.