SOLUTION: The half life of radioactive element plutonium-239 is 20 years. How long will it take for a sample of this substance to decay to 60% of its original amount?

Question 812540: The half life of radioactive element plutonium-239 is 20 years.
How long will it take for a sample of this substance to decay to 60% of its original amount?
Answer by ankor@dixie-net.com(22740) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The half life of radioactive element plutonium-239 is 20 years.
How long will it take for a sample of this substance to decay to 60% of its original amount?
:
The radioactive decay formula: A = Ao*2^(-t/h), where:
A = resulting amt after t time
Ao = initial amt (t=0)
t = time of decay
h = half-life of substance
:
Let initial amt = 1
2^(-t/20) = .6
=
t = -.7369656 * -20
t = 14.74 yrs
RELATED QUESTIONS
The half life of Plutonium-239 is 24,00 years. This is , 1,000 grams of Plutonium-239... (answered by Cromlix)

8. Radioactive materials like uranium follow the law of uninhibited decay, which is an... (answered by josgarithmetic)

The half-life of a radioactive substance is 33.3 years. a. Find the exponential decay... (answered by josgarithmetic)

The half-life of the radioactive element plutonium 239 is 25000 years. If 16 grams are... (answered by Fombitz)

The mass of a radioactive element at time x is given by the equation below, where c is... (answered by josgarithmetic)

An accident in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine released a large amount of... (answered by josgarithmetic)

Plutonium 239 is used as fuel for some nuclear reactors, and also as the fissionable... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)

The half-life of a radioactive substance is 36.1 years. a. Find the exponential decay (answered by josgarithmetic)

The half-life of a substance is the time it takes for half of the substance to remain... (answered by ankor@dixie-net.com)