Half life Flashcards
1
Q
Radioactive substances give out….
A
Radiation from the nuclei of their atoms-no matter what. The radioactive decay is random, so you cannot predict which atom in the substance would decay next and when.
2
Q
The half-life
A
Is the time taken for the number of radioactive nuclei in an isotope to halve.
3
Q
Uses of half-life
A
Used to make predictions about radioactive sources.
It can be used to find the rate at which a source decays. Measured in Bq-1 decay per second.
4
Q
The activity of radioactive materials
A
The activity never reaches 0, which is why we have to use the idea of half-life to measure how quickly the activity drops off.
5
Q
Half-life also described as..
A
the time taken for the activity to fall to half of its initial value.
