A radioactive substance has a half-life of H minutes. If a given amount of this element decays to 10% of its original mass in one hour, what is the half-life of this element? Thanks.
You can calculate half-life as follows:
10% =2^-(60/H), where H is half-life
0.10 =2^-(60/H) take the log of both sides
-60/H = Log(0.1) / Log(2)
-60/H = -3.3219280
H =-60/-3.321928
H =~18.06 minutes half-life of the substance.