Question

A sample contains radioactive atoms of two types, A and B. Initially there are five times as many A atoms as there are B atoms. Two hours later, the numbers of the two atoms are equal. The half-life of A is 0.50 hour. What is the half-life of B?

Short answer

Activity of a radioactive substance after a time t

Step-by-step solution

The radio active

Here, 1 / 2 is half-life, R is final activity and R is initial activity.

Let A be the initial activity of the radioactive atom A and R{B} be the initial activity of the radioactive atom .

Initially, there is five times number of atoms equal to the number of A atoms. Hence, the activity of type atoms is equal to the five times activity of type atoms.