(A)

1 A radioactive isotope has a half-life of 2h. What fraction of the isotope

sample is left after 6h?
2 The half-life of strontium-82 is 25 days. If the initial mass of a sample
of strontium is 160g.
(a) What is the mass of strontium left in the sample after 50days?
(b) After how many days would the mass of strontium be reduced to 10g?
3 Radium has a half-life of 1620 yrs. In a sample of radium, what
fraction of it remains
(a) after 1620 yrs
(b) after 3240 yrs?
4 A specimen of a radioactive isotope with a half-life of 12 minutes has
an initial activity of 480 counts per second. What is the activity of
isotope in the specimen changes during the next hour?
5 A radioactive source has a half-life of 20minutes. What fraction is left
1 hour?
6 If you start with 80radioactive atoms, how many are likely to be left
after 4 half-lives? Is this totally accurate and predictable ?
7 A laboratory keeps 4mg of strontium-90 (Sr-90) with a half-life of 28
years. How much Sr-90 is left after 84 years?
8 The initial count rate of a radioactive substance is 256 counts per
second and its half-life is 5hrs. What is its count rate after 20hrs?
9 Radon-220 has half-life of 54s. How much of a 20g sample of this gas
would remain after
(a) 54s
(b) 108s
(c) 162s
(d) 540s
 (B)
1 An original mass of 24mg of a radioactive isotope is reduced to 3mg
after 30 years of decay. What is its half-life?
2 The count rate of a sample of radioactive iodine falls from 200 counts
per min to 25 counts per min in 60mins.
(a) What is its half – life?
(b) What fraction of the original number of iodine atoms remains after
100mins?
3 A radioactive substance has an initial count rate of 240 counts per
second. The count rate became 30 counts per second after 60minutes.
What is the half-life of the radioactive substance?
4 The activity of a sample of radioactive material is measured and found
to be 880Bq. After 160 minutes the activity has fallen to 55Bq. What is
the half-life of the material?
5 An explosion in a nuclear reactor spread the isotope caesium-137
across a large area. Ninety years after the explosion, the quantity of
caesium-137 present will be 12.5% of its original level. What is the
half-life of caesium-137?
(E)
1 The ratio of the number of atoms of argon-40 to potassium-40 in a
sample of radioactive rock is analyzed to be 1:3. Assuming that there
was no potassium in the rock originally and that argon-40 decays to
potassium-40 with a half life of 1500 million years. Estimate the age of
the rock.
2 The relative proportions of uranium-238 and lead-204 in a sample of
igneous rock can be used to date the rock. A rock sample contains
three times as many lead atoms as uranium atoms.
(a) What fraction of the original uranium was left in the rock? Assume
that there were no lead in the original rock.
(b) The half-life of uranium-238 is 4500 million years. Calculate the age
of the rock.
3 Scientists use carbon-14 to estimate the age of wood that is very old. A
very old sample of wood contains 1×108 carbon-14 atoms. When the
sample was new, it contained 8×108 carbon-14 atoms. The half-life of
carbon-14 is 5700 years. Estimate the age of the sample of wood.
 (D)
1 The graph shows how the count rate registered by a counter near to a
sample of a radioactive isotope changes over a period of a few days.
The background count rate is 5 counts per minute.

What is the half-life of the isotope?

2 A scientist measures the count rate of a radioactive sample in a
laboratory over a period of 12 weeks. The background radiation count
rate in the laboratory remains constant at 20counts per minute. The
table shows the scientist’s results before the background radiation
count rate is taken into account.
Time/weeks count rate/
counts per
minute
0 100
2 80
4 65
6 54
8 45
10 39
12 34
In which range does the half-life of the radioactive isotope lie?
(A) between 4 and 6 weeks
(B) between 6 and 8 weeks
(C) between 8 and 10 weeks
(D) more than 12 weeks
3 The count rate measured when near a radioactive source drops from
542 counts per minute to 94 counts per minute in 12 hours. The
background count remains constant at 30counts per minute. What is
the half-life of the source?
4 With no radioactive sample present, a scientist records a background
radiation count of 40 counts/minute.
He brings a radioactive sample close to the detector. The count rate
increases to 200 counts/minute. After 24 days the count rate is 50
counts/minute. Calculate the half-life of the radioactive sample.