Page 8
Half-Life
Half-life is the time required for the quantity of a radioactive material
to be reduced to one-half its original value.
All radionuclides have a particular half-life, some of which a very long,
while other are extremely short. For example, uranium-238 has such a long
half life, 4.5x109 years, that only a small fraction has decayed
since the earth was formed. In contrast, carbon-11 has a half-life of only
20 minutes. Since this nuclide has medical applications, it has to be created
where it is being used so that enough will be present to conduct medical
studies.
Here is a on-line calculator
that will calculate the activity of some radionuclides at some time
after it is formed.
|
