Half-life definition
- Half-life is defined as:
The time taken for the initial number of nuclei to reduce by half
- This means when a time equal to the half-life has passed, the activity of the sample will also half
- This is because the activity is proportional to the number of undecayed nuclei, A ∝ N
Determining half-life from a graph
When a time equal to the half-life passes, the activity falls by half, when two half-lives pass, the activity falls by another half (which is a quarter of the initial value)