In: Chemistry
Part A
Phosphorus-32 decays by beta emission to form sulfur-32. How many half-lives have passed in the reaction shown here?
Part B
The half-life of phosphorus-32 is 14.26 days. Calculate its decay constant.
Radioactive decay is characterized by the equation where No is the initial amount, N is the amount remaining at time, and k is the rate constant. The half-life ()is the time required for the number of radioactive nuclei in a sample to drop to half of its initial value. It is defined as T 1/2=ln2/k