Uranium-238 decays to Lead-206. The half life of Uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years. If you have a 100 g sample. How much sample will you have after 2 half lifes?
just do it in your head ...
after 1 half-life you would have 50 g left
after 2 half-lifes you would have 25 g left
Your question isn't quite clear to me. If you want the mass of U after two half lives, then 25 g is correct. If you want the mass of sample left after two half lives, that is 25g U + the equivalent of 75 g U that's been converted to Pb. That conversion is 75 g U x (atomic mass Pb/atomic mass U) = about 75*207/238 = about 65 g. Therefore, the total mass is 25 + about 65 = about 90 g.
If the half-life of a radionuclide is 1 month, is a sample of it completely decayed after 2 months?
4.5 ×1o ^ 9
To determine the amount of sample remaining after a certain number of half-lives, we can use the formula:
Remaining Sample = Initial Sample * (1/2)^(Number of Half-lives)
In this case, the initial sample is 100 g, and we want to find the sample remaining after 2 half-lives. The half-life of Uranium-238 is given as 4.5 billion years.
To calculate the sample remaining after 2 half-lives, we need to divide the time in years by the half-life:
Time in years = Number of Half-lives * Half-life
Time in years = 2 * 4.5 billion years
Time in years = 9 billion years
Now we can substitute the values into the formula:
Remaining Sample = 100 g * (1/2)^(9 billion years / 4.5 billion years)
Simplifying further:
Remaining Sample = 100 g * (1/2)^2
Remaining Sample = 100 g * (1/4)
Remaining Sample = 25 g
Therefore, after 2 half-lives, you will have 25 grams of the sample remaining.