A certain sample of a radioactive material decays at the rate of 500 per second at a certain time. The count rate falls to 200 per second after 50 minutes.

(a) What is the decay constant of the sample?


(b) What is its half-life?


Initial Activity = 500

Final activity = 200


a) We know that,




Where,


A= Activity of the substance


A0 = Initial activity


t = time=50 mins


λ = decay constant


so,







b) Half life




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