Manipal Engineering Manipal Engineering Solved Paper-2008

  • question_answer
    Half-life of radioactive substance is 3.20 h. What is the time taken for a 75% of substance to be used?

    A)  6.38 h                                  

    B)  12 h

    C)  4.18 day             

    D)         1.2day

    Correct Answer: A

    Solution :

    The activity or decay rate R of a radioactive substance is the number of decays per second. \[\therefore \]  \[R=\lambda N\] or            \[R=\lambda {{N}_{0}}{{\left( \frac{1}{2} \right)}^{t/{{T}_{1/2}}}}\] or            \[R={{R}_{0}}{{\left( \frac{1}{2} \right)}^{t/{{T}_{1/2}}}}\] where\[{{R}_{0}}=\lambda {{N}_{0}}\]is the activity of the radioactive substance at time\[t=0\]. According to question                   \[\frac{R}{{{R}_{0}}}=1-\frac{75}{100}=25%\] \[\therefore \]    \[\frac{25}{100}={{\left( \frac{1}{2} \right)}^{t/{{T}_{1/2}}}}\] or            \[{{\left( \frac{1}{2} \right)}^{2}}={{\left( \frac{1}{2} \right)}^{t/{{T}_{1/2}}}}\] or                \[\frac{t}{{{T}_{1/2}}}=2\] \[\therefore \]           \[t=2{{T}_{1/2}}=2\times 3.20=6.40\,\,h\] or                      \[t\approx 6.38\,\,h\]


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