• Question: What does the half-life mean?

    Asked by benhagan to Charlotte, Dhvanil, Frank, Jim, Leila on 15 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Dhvanil Karia

      Dhvanil Karia answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      Radioactive atoms decay ( convert from high energy state to stable energy state) . So time taken by 50 atoms out of 100 atoms become stable it is called 1 half life for those types of atoms..

    • Photo: Leila Nichol

      Leila Nichol answered on 15 Mar 2013:

      Half life it the time it takes for a radioactive atom of an initial activity, to decay to half of that. We use the term half-life a lot in our line of work!
      For example, the longer we have kept a source for, the less “strong” it is, which might mean that treatments take longer. This is more for “brachytherapy” treatments rather than radiotherapy. used in nuclear medicine too!

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