HALF-LIFE PROBLEMS NAME

Complete the following practice problems in the spaces below. Show all REASONING,
FORMULAE, WORKING and UNITS as appropriate.

1. The half-life of Rn-222 is 3.8 days.

a) What fraction of the sample remains after 15.2 days?

b) How long does it take for 20% of the element to decay?

days

c) What is the probability that an atom of Rn-222 will decay in 3.8 days? %

d) Sketch a graph of the fraction of radioactive Rn-222 remaining against time.

Label your axes and include values.

2. The half-life of Thorium-234 is 24 days. A sample of Th-234 initially contains 3.2x1020

atoms.

a) How many atoms will remain after 96 days?

b) How long will it take 3.0x1020 atoms to decay?

days
3. The diagram at right shows a graph of the fraction of a
radioactive sample remaining plotted against time.
What is the half-life of the radioactive sample?

Explain your logic.

days

4. The half-life of Iodine-128 is 25 minutes. How long would it take the radioactivity of a
sample to drop from 3000 decays per second, to 375 decays per second? Show
working.

minutes

5. The half-life of a radioisotope of Krypton is 3.0 seconds. A sample initially contains

4.8 x1020 atoms. How many atoms of this sample remain after
a) 3.0s? b) 9.0s? c) 24.0s?
6. A Geiger Counter shows that the activity of a radioactive sample decrease to half its
initial rate in 8 hours.

a) What is the half-life of the radioactive sample? Explain your reasoning.

hours

b) What fraction of the original number of atoms is still present after 8 hours?

c) What fraction of the original number of atoms will have decayed in 24 hours?

7. Radium-226 has a half-life of 1600 years. If you started with 5.0g of Radium-226,
how much would be left after 4000 years? Show your working.

8. The half-life of Thorium-234 is 24 days. What fraction of the element remains after
96 days?
9. A sample of a radioactive element contains 3.0x1021 atoms. If the half-life is 1600
years, how many atoms remain after 8000 years?

atoms

10. A particular radioisotope has a half-life of 10 years.

a) If there is now 32g of the radioactive element left, how much was there 20 years
ago?

b) How much will be left in 20 years from now?

11. One-sixteenth of the original amount of a radioisotope remains after 12 minutes.

What is the half-life of the material?

minutes
12. There is initially 12.0g of a radioisotope and 6 days later there is only 1.5g.
Determine the half-life of the radioisotope. Show your working.

days

13. Strontium-82 has a half-life of 25.0 days. If you started with 150g, after how many
days would you have only 10.0g left?

days

14. The half-life of Krypton-81 is 13 seconds.

a) In a sample of Kr-81, what is the probability that a particular atom will decay in
the next 13 seconds? %

b) One particular atom of Kr-81 survives for an hour without undergoing decay.
What is the probability it will undergo decay in the next 13 seconds? %

15. Americium-241 is used in smoke detectors. If the original amount in the smoke
detector was 2 micrograms (2 μg) and a year later 1.997μg remains, calculate the
half-life of Americium-241. Show your working.

years

16. An Egyptian mummy is found to have 30% of its Carbon-14 atoms decayed. If the
half-life of C-14 is 5730 years, calculate
a) the probability that a C-14 atom will decay in 11460 years %
b) the age of the mummy.

years