Number of half-lives elapsed |
Fraction remaining |
Percentage remaining | |
---|---|---|---|
0 | 1/1 | 100 | |
1 | 1/2 | 50 | |
2 | 1/4 | 25 | |
3 | 1/8 | 12 | .5 |
4 | 1/16 | 6 | .25 |
5 | 1/32 | 3 | .125 |
6 | 1/64 | 1 | .563 |
7 | 1/128 | 0 | .781 |
... | ... | ... | |
A radioactive half-life is the amount of time that it takes for a mass of a given element to decay to one half of its original mass.
The table at the right shows the amount of element left after each half-life. At the bottom is the most general form of the half-life equation.