A substance has a half-life of 2.045 minutes. If the initial amount of the substance was 132.

8 grams,
how many half-lives will have passed before the substance decays to 8.3 grams? What is the total time
of decay?

Solution
The half-life is the time it takes a substance to decay to half of the amount that is present. To find the
number of half-lives that have passed for the initial amount of 132.8 grams to decay to 8.3 grams, we
can start by dividing the initial amount by two, then divide the new amount by two and continue this
process until the amount is at 8.3 grams.

Number of half-lives Amount of substance (g)

0 132.8
1 66.4
2 33.2
3 16.6
4 8.3

It will take 4 half-lives for the substance to decay to 8.3 grams.

To find the total time of decay, we must multiply the number of half-lives by the time for each half-life.

4*2.045  8.18min

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