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An isotope of Sodium, Na-24, has a half life of 10h.
If a sample contains 400 units of Na-24, the exponential function to model this is y=400(1/2)^x.
What does the variable y represent in this situation?
What does the variable x represent in this situation?
Im confused and don't know how to figure this out.
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The variable "y" represents the current amount of the isotope NA-24 in the sample after x half-life periods.
The variable "x" represents the number of half-life periods after the beginning of the decay process.
For example, x = 2 means "2 half-life periods", i.e. 2*10 = 20 hours.
Answered and solved.
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Notice that the formula in your post IS NOT traditional and DIFFERS from the traditional decay function/formula.
The traditional decay formula for this isotope would be y = , where t is the time in hours.