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QUESTION

# The half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,100 years. Of an original mass of 100g, how much plutonium-239 remains after 96,440 years?

"6.25 g"

The of a nuclide tells you how much time must pass before half of an initial sample of said nuclide undergoes radioactive decay.

Simply put, an initial sample of radioactive isotope is halved with every passing of a half-life.

This means that for a A_0 sample of a radioactive isotope, you can say that you'll be left with

• A_0 * 1/2 -> after one half-life
• A_0/2 * 1/2 = A_0/4 -> after two half-lives
• A_0/4 * 1/2 = A_0/8 -> after three half-lives
• A_0/8 * 1/2 = A_0/16 -> after four half-lives vdots

and so on.

Notice that you can express the amount of the sample that remains after n half-lives like this

color(blue)(A_n = A_0 * 1/2^n)

Now, notice that the time given to you is actually a multiple of the half-life

n = 96440/24110 = 4

This means that four half-lives of plutonium-239 will pass in "96,440", and so the remaining sample after this period of time will be

m = "100 g" * 1/2^4 = "6.25 g"

I'll leave the answer rounded to three , despite the fact that you only have one sig fig for the mass of the sample.