What is Half-life?

1. Half-life is the time taken for half of the radioactive nuclei to decay. OR

2. Half-life is the time taken for the count rate to fall to half of its original reading.

Calculations using Half-life

There are two types of calculation using half-life.

1. If you are given two count rates and you know how long it takes to get from one to the
other, then you can calculate the half-life of the material.

2. If you know the half-life of a material, you can calculate what the count rate will be at
some time in the future.

How Half-life can be used to calculate the Count Rate:

Question:
The half-life of a material is 3 hours. If the initial count rate is 544 Bq, what will the count
rate be after 15 hours?

Answer:
Put the count rate in boxes and use arrows to represent the half-life.

We are told that the half-life of the material is 3 hours. In 15 hours there are 15 ÷ 3 half-
lives= 5 half-lives. After each half-life the count rate is halved.

After five half-lives the count rate is 17 Bq.

THE ABACUS QUEST Page 1

How the Half-life can be Calculated from the Count Rate:

Question:
The count rate of a material is 2016 Bq. After 35 days it has fallen to 63. What is the half-
life?

Answer:

Put the count rate in boxes and use arrows to represent the half-life. After each half-life
the count rate is halved.

In going from 2016 to 63 there are 5 half-lives. If 5 half-lives take 35 days, each half-life is
35 ÷ 5 = 7 days. The half-life of the material is 7 days.

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Measuring Half-life from a Graph:

A graph showing how the count rate decreases as time goes by will have a curve like the
one shown in the picture below. For any particular radioisotope the count rate and time
will be different but the shape of the curve will be the same.

The easiest way to measure the half-life from the graph is to

1. Read the original count rate at zero days. On our graph the reading is 1640 counts.
2. Go down to half the original count rate (820 counts) and draw a horizontal line to the
curve. Then draw a vertical line down from the curve. You can read off the half-life where
the line crosses the time axis.

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On our graph the half-life is 20 days.

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