True or false----The half life of a radioactive isotope changes as the isotope decays?

Answer 1

False. The half life of a radioactive isotope will remain constant no matter what. What changes is the amount of the isotope that decays. For example if the half life of an isotope is 4 years and you have 4 grams...then after four years only two grams would have decayed. After the nex four years only 1gram would have decayed which half of two and in the next four years only 0.5 grams would have decayed and so on.

Answer 2

False. The half-life is a property of a radioactive isotope that never changes; it give the time it takes for quantity of the isotope to fall by one-half. The only thing that changes over time is the quantity of the isotope.

Answer 3

False. The half life is a property of the isotope.
Do remember however that the rate of decay in any given sample decreases as the overall amount of the isotope in the sample is decreased.
Is that what you're thinking of?

Answer 4

The half-life of a radioisotope is the amount of time it takes for one-half of a sample to decay. This value (as in length of time) is constant for a particular radioactive isotope. Example: 20.0 g 131Iodine / Half-life is 8 days 0 days / 20.0 g / 0 half-lives 8 days / 10.0 g / 1 half-life 16 days / 5.0 g / 2 half-lives 24 days / 2.5 g / 3 half-lives As you see the value of the half-life doesn't change, the quantity of the substance does. Hope that helps you understand it. =}

Answer 5

False... an isotope's half-life is precisely what defines its rate of decay.

Answer 6

False

The half life is a stable property of any specific isotope.

Answer 7

False, the half life stays the same. It just cuts the remaining radioactive material in half.

Answer 8

False.

Current scientific thinking is that the half life of a particular radioisotope is constant.

Answer 9

yes!