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There is a half-life describing any exponential-decay process. For example: As noted above, in radioactive decay the half-life is the length of time after which there is a 50% chance that an atom will have undergone nuclear decay. It varies depending on the atom type and isotope, and is usually determined experimentally. See List of nuclides.
Terms "partial half-life" and "partial mean life" denote quantities derived from a decay constant as if the given decay mode were the only decay mode for the quantity. The term "partial half-life" is misleading, because it cannot be measured as a time interval for which a certain quantity is halved.
the half-life is related to the decay constant as follows: set N = N 0 /2 and t = T 1/2 to obtain / = = This relationship between the half-life and the decay constant shows that highly radioactive substances are quickly spent, while those that radiate weakly endure longer.
Secular equilibrium can occur in a radioactive decay chain only if the half-life of the daughter radionuclide B is much shorter than the half-life of the parent radionuclide A. In such a case, the decay rate of A and hence the production rate of B is approximately constant, because the half-life of A is very long compared to the time scales ...
Example: 60 Co decays into 60 Ni. The mass difference Δm is 0.003 u. The radiated energy is approximately 2.8 MeV. The molar weight is 59.93. The half life T of 5.27 year corresponds to the activity A = N [ ln(2) / T ], where N is the number of atoms per mol, and T is the half-life.
The decay scheme of a radioactive substance is a graphical presentation of all the transitions occurring in a decay, and of their relationships. Examples are shown below. It is useful to think of the decay scheme as placed in a coordinate system, where the vertical axis is energy, increasing from bottom to top, and the horizontal axis is the proton number, increasing from left to right.
Half-life has units of time, and the elimination rate constant has units of 1/time, e.g., per hour or per day. An equation can be used to forecast the concentration of a compound at any future time when the fractional degration rate and steady state concentration are known:
The radioactive decay constant, the probability that an atom will decay per year, is the solid foundation of the common measurement of radioactivity. The accuracy and precision of the determination of an age (and a nuclide's half-life) depends on the accuracy and precision of the decay constant measurement. [11]