The half life for a first order reaction is know to be 4.5 h. How long will it take for 85% to be decomposed, in h?

k = 0.693/t1/2 and substitute into the equation below.

ln(No/N) = kt
No I would use 100
N then will be 85
k from above.
Solve for t in hours.

Well, if the half-life of a first order reaction is 4.5 hours, we can calculate how many half-lives it would take for 85% of the substance to decompose. But hey, let's not get so serious about it.

Imagine you're at a party, and people keep leaving every 4.5 hours. It's like a reverse game of musical chairs, but instead of sitting down, everyone vanishes! Anyway, after the first 4.5 hours, you still have 50% of the people remaining. After the second 4.5 hours, half of those remaining people leave, so you have 25% left.

We keep going, after the third 4.5 hours, we lose another half, so we have 12.5% left. After the fourth 4.5 hours, half of 12.5% would leave, leaving us with just 6.25%.

Now, to find when 85% of people would leave, we need to find out how many 4.5 hour intervals it would take for us to be left with just 15% (100% - 85%).

So, if we divide 100% by 6.25%, we get 16. And since each division represents a 4.5-hour interval, we simply multiply 16 by 4.5.

Therefore, it would take approximately 72 hours for 85% of the substance to decompose. See? Chemistry can be fun!

To determine the time it will take for 85% of the substance to decompose in a first-order reaction using the half-life, you can use the following formula:

t = (t1/2 / ln(2)) * ln(C₀ / Cₜ)

Where:
t = time it will take for 85% to decompose
t1/2 = half-life of the reaction
C₀ = initial concentration
Cₜ = final concentration (85% decomposed)

Given that the half-life (t1/2) is known to be 4.5 h, and we want to find the time for 85% (Cₜ) to decompose, let's substitute the values into the formula:

t = (4.5 / ln(2)) * ln(C₀ / Cₜ)

Since we're dealing with the decomposition of the substance, the concentration at the start (C₀) would be 100%, and the final concentration at 85% decomposed (Cₜ) would be 15%.

t = (4.5 / ln(2)) * ln(100% / 15%)

Now, let's solve for t using a calculator:

t ≈ 9.83 hours

So, it will take approximately 9.83 hours for 85% of the substance to be decomposed.

To find the time it takes for a certain percentage of a substance to decompose in a first-order reaction, we can use the formula:

t = (ln(initial concentration / final concentration)) / k

where:
- t is the time it takes for the reaction to occur,
- initial concentration is the starting concentration of the substance,
- final concentration is the desired concentration at which we want to find the time, and
- k is the rate constant for the first-order reaction.

In this case, we are given the half-life of the reaction, which can be used to derive the rate constant (k). The half-life (t1/2) can be defined as the time it takes for half of the initial concentration to decompose.

t1/2 = 0.693 / k

Given that the half-life (t1/2) is 4.5 hours, we can rearrange the equation to solve for the rate constant (k):

k = 0.693 / t1/2
= 0.693 / 4.5
≈ 0.154 h^-1

Now that we know the rate constant (k), we can solve for the time it takes for 85% of the substance to decompose:

t = (ln(initial concentration / final concentration)) / k

Let's assume the initial concentration is 100%, and we want to find the time at which 85% remains:

t = (ln(100% / 15%)) / 0.154
= (ln(6.6667)) / 0.154
≈ 7.97 hours

Therefore, it will take approximately 7.97 hours for 85% of the substance to decompose in this first-order reaction.