Call A the original amount of the substance....and we have this equation
.5A = Ae^(-k*t) where k is the decay factor and t is the time in days = 8
........divide both sides by A
.5 = e^(-k*8) take the ln of both sides
ln (.5) = ln e^(-k*8) and we can write
ln (.5) =( -k*8) and ln e = 1 so we can ignore this
ln(.5) = -k * 8 divide both sides by -8
-ln(.5) / 8 = k ≈ 0.09 [rounded ]