Natural water contains a small amount of tritium . This isotope beta-decays with a half-life of 12.5 years. A mountaineer while climbing towards a difficult peak finds debris of some earlier unsuccessful attempt. Among other things he finds a sealed bottle of whisky. On return 1.5 per cent of the radioactivity as compared to a recently purchased bottle marked ‘8 years old’. Estimate the time of that unsuccessful attempt.

Let initial activity of the bottle = A˳

Activity of the bottle found on the mountain, A = A˳-λt


Also,


Comparing both we get,






1