HALF LIFE CONCEPT

HALF LIFE

Time taken by radioactive substance for its :

Activity of atoms
OR Mass
OR

Number

to decrease to half of its original value

T
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXAMPLE
A radioactive decay for a radioactive sample

100 g
10 January 3000

50 g
20 January 3000

Half life,T1/2 = 10 days

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXAMPLE
A radioactive decay for a radioactive sample

700/minutes

350/minutes

Time 8.00 p.m

Time 12.00 p.m

Half life,T1/2 = 4 hours

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXAMPLE
Half life of a radioactive sample is 2 days.Mass of the
radioactive sample on 11th January 3000 is 5 g.
What was it mass on 7th January 3000 ?

7th January 3000

20 g

9th January 3000

10 g

11th January 3000

5g
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXAMPLE
Half life of a radioactive sample is 2 days.Mass of the
radioactive sample on 11th January 3000 is 5 g.
What will it mass on 15th January 3000 ?

11th January 3000

5g

13th January 3000

2.5 g

15th January 3000

1.25 g
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
A sample of radioactive has a half life of 5 days.
What is the activity of 1000/s substance after 10 days ?

1000

0 day

5 days

500
5 days

250
250/s
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
Below is a record of radioactive decay for a sample
recorded by a student

Year 3000

200 g

Year 4000

150 g

Year 5000

100 g

What is the half life of the radioactive sample ?

5000 3000 = 2000 years

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
A radioactive sample has a half life of 3 years.If mass of the
sample is 10 g.What was the mass of the sample 15 years ago ?
320 g

15 years ago

160 g

12 years ago

80 g

9 years ago

40 g

6 years ago

20 g

3 years ago

10 g

now
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
A sample of radioactive left 25 % residual after 5 hours.
What is the half life of the sample ?

100 %
T
5 hours

2T = 5 hours

50 %
T

T = 5/2 hours

25 %

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
A radioactive isotope took 6 days to decay 75 % of its sample.
What was the mass of 5 g sample 9 days ago ?

100 %

75 %

50 %

2T = 6 days
T = 3 days

9 days ago

40 g

6 days ago

20 g

3 days ago

10 g

Now

5g

25 %

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

HALF LIFE GRAPH(DECAY CURVE)
A sample of radioactive has a half life of 2 days.
If its activity now is 50/s.What is its activity after 5 days ?

0 day

2 days

4 days

6 day

ANSWER CAN NOT BE OBTAINED BY CALCULATION.

THE ANSWER ONLY CAN BE FOUND BY USING
HALF LIFE GRAPH.

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

HALF LIFE GRAPH(DECAY CURVE)
Activity
50
40
30
20
10

Time/day
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
If half life of a radioactive sample is 1 hour.
What is the activity of 25/s sample after 1.5 hours ?
Activity
25
20
15
10
5
1

Time/hour

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
Activity
500
400
300
200
100
1

Time/hour

5 hours

What is the half life of the sample ?

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

EXERCISE
GM tube reads 2080/s of carbon-14 atoms in a fresh bone of a goat.
Background reading is 80/s.
A student from a school claimed that he has found a bone
of an ancient goat at the back yard of his house.
The reading of GM tube for the sample is 1080/s.
If the half life of carbon-14 is 5 years,estimate the age of the
ancient goat.

The actual reading of fresh bone = 2080 80 = 2000/s

The actual reading of ancient bone = 1080 80 = 1000/s
2000

1000
5 years

SORRY !
IT IS NOT AN ANCIENT GOAT
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

APPLICATIONS OF HALF LIFE
1. Understanding the half life for a radioactive substance in
medical field is very important.Radioactive substance with
longer half life tends to stay longer in human body and will
cause a side effect.
If the half life is too short,it will disappear too fast before
any test can be done.
2. Archeology.
Carbon-14 isotope is used to determine the age of the fossil
based on carbon-14 half life.

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

THE USES OF RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCE

Detect the leaking pipes

Small amount of radioactive
is injected into the pipe

Geiger-Muller counter (G-M Counter)

will detect the radioactive at the leaking area

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

THE USES OF RADIOACTIVE SUBSTANCE

Explain with example the applications of radioactive

substances in the following fields :
1. medical
2. agriculture
3. industrial

Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

THE HARMFULL EFFECTS OF RADIOACTICE SUBSTANCE
The effects of radioactive depends on :
1. Types of radiation
2. Dosage
3. Exposure time
4. Parts of body

Common effects are :

1. Fatigue

4. Infertility in male

2. Vomiting

5. Severe skin burn

3. Hair loss

6. Leukemia

7. Genetic defect
- Down syndrome
- Klinefelter syndrome
- Turner syndrome
8. Death
Author : Khairi

HALF LIFE CONCEPT

PRECAUTION STEPS IN HANDLING RADIOACTICE SUBSTANCE
1. Keep radioactive substance in a room enclosed by concrete
2. Wear protective suits and gloves
3. Use robotic arms to handle a strong radioactive
4. Shield of radioactive container has to be made of lead
5. Do not eat and drink in radioactive lab
6. Dispose radioactive substances in safe method
7. Do not make fun of radioactive substance to your friends
8. Put a radioactive sign or symbol at the place where radioactive is
handled
9. Wear photographic film to monitor the amount of radiation exposed.
Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

Which isotope is suitable to detect the blood clotting ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

P will disappear too fast

R and S will stay too long in blood stream
It is too dangerous.
Q is fine because it will not stay too long in blood
stream and enough time for it to travel in the
blood stream
Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

Which radioisotope is most suitable as a tracer in human body ?

A.

B.

C.

D.

J,K and L are too long.Thus,they will stay longer in

human body.This will cause undesirable effect to
human body.

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

What is the activity after 1 hour ?

A.

400

0 min --- 15 min --- 30 min --- 45 min --- 60 min

B.

200

800

C.

100

D.

50

E.

25

--- 400

---- 200

--- 100 -------- 50

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

What is the radioisotope that can be used to determine the
age of a fossil ?

A.

Radon-222

B.

Uranium-238

C.

Carbon-14

D.

Iodine-131

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

Half life of arsenic is 18 days.
After 72 days only 72 g arsenic still remains.
What is the initial mass of arsenic ?

A.

160 g

B.

90 g

C.
D.

0 day

160 g

80 g

18 days

80 g

72 g

36 days

40 g

54 days

20 g

72 days

10 g

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

How many alpha and beta particles are emitted in this process ?

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

a. What is meant by half life ?
Time taken by radioactive substances to reduce its activity to
half of its initial value.
b. The initial iodine-131 is 1600 counts per second.
Calculate the time taken for the iodine-131 activity to decrease
to 100 counts per second if half life of iodine-131 is 8 days.
1600 ---- 800 ---- 400 ---- 200 ---- 100
4 half life
Time taken = 4 x 8 days
= 32 days

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

Diagram shows the radioisotope detected in the kidneys of a patient.

A normal kidney can expel radioisotope in 20 minutes.
a. Which kidney is not function properly ? Give reason for your answer.
Right kidney because the radioisotope still can be detected in the
kidney after 20 minutes.

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

Explain the suitability of
characteristics of radioisotope
to be used in the sterilization of
medical equipments.
Choose the most suitable
radioisotope.Justify your choice.

Author : Khairi

PAST YEARS QUESTION

characteristics

Reason

State of
matter is solid

Easy to handle

Type of ray
is gamma
Half life is
long

High penetration
power
Economical

Therefore,the most suitable

radioisotope is Cobalt-60 because
it is in solid,produces gamma ray and
has a long half life

a. Explain whether gamma ray is suitable for taking photograph of

human organ.
Not suitable because it has high penetrating power and able to kill
the body cells
Author : Khairi