Half-Life of Radioactive Substances
A radionuclide decays into a different atom known as a decay product. Until the atoms achieve a stable state and stop being radioactive, they continue to change into new decay products. Most radionuclides only undergo one decay before stabilizing. Series radionuclides are those that decay in more than one step. The decay chain is the collection of decay products produced to achieve this equilibrium.
Each radionuclide has a unique decay rate that is measured by its “half-life.” The amount of time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms present to decay is known as the radioactive half-life. Others have half-lives of hundreds, millions, or billions of years. Some radionuclides have half-lives of just a few seconds.
The time it takes for the activity of a specific quantity of a radioactive substance to decay to half of its initial value is known as the half-life (t1/2).
t1/2 = ln(2) / λ = τ ln(2)
where,
t1/2 is the half-life of a radioactive substance.
λ is the mean lifetime of a radioactive substance.
τ is the average lifetime of a radioactive substance before decay.
Rate Of Decay Formula
Radioactive decay is the release of alpha, beta, and gamma particles from unbalanced atoms known as radionuclides. Some substances, like uranium, have no stable forms and are therefore always radioactive. Radioactive substances are referred to as radionuclides. Rate of Decay is calculated to tell the exact amount of radioactive material that is being radiated. In this article, we will learn about the rate of decay formula and its examples in detail.