Tuesday 7 May 2013

7.12 use the concept of half-life to carry out simple calculations on activity


Some people use equations to work out half life calculations, but you don't really need to. Make sure that you understand that half life is the time taken for the amount of radiation emitted to half; two half lives is the amount of time taken for the value to half twice (ect.)

The papers often contain half life graphs to interpret. Draw a line from half the value of the start point to the curve, draw down to the bottom line and you will get your half life. If you are doing this in an exam the mark scheme sometimes requires that you make it clear you were halfing the start number.. odd but there we go.
gcsescience

1 comment:

  1. As someone who just encountered this type of graph for the first time this was very helpful, thanks!

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