about how many skittlesium nuclei would remain after three half lives if the intial sample had 500 skittles?
To answer this question, we need to know the concept of half-life and how it relates to radioactive decay.
Half-life refers to the time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms in a substance to decay. It is a characteristic property of each radioactive material.
In this case, let's assume that the skittlesium nuclei follow a decay pattern with a half-life of 1 unit of time.
If the initial sample had 500 skittlesium nuclei, after one half-life, half of them would have decayed, leaving us with 250 skittlesium nuclei.
After the second half-life, another half of the remaining 250 skittlesium nuclei would have decayed. Therefore, we would be left with 125 skittlesium nuclei.
Similarly, after the third half-life, half of the remaining 125 skittlesium nuclei would have decayed. This leads us to 62.5 skittlesium nuclei.
Since we cannot have a fraction of a nucleus, we need to round off the number.
Therefore, after three half-lives, approximately 62 skittlesium nuclei would remain from the initial sample of 500 skittlesium nuclei.