An element with mass 490 grams decays by 28.6% per minute. How much of the element is remaining after 16 minutes, to the nearest 10th of a gram?

Answer 1

To calculate how much of the element remains after 16 minutes, we can use the formula:

Remaining mass = Initial mass * (1 - decay rate)^number of minutes

Plugging in the values for the initial mass (490 grams), decay rate (28.6% or 0.286), and number of minutes (16), we get:

Remaining mass = 490 * (1 - 0.286)^16
Remaining mass = 490 * (0.714)^16
Remaining mass ≈ 4.58 grams

Therefore, after 16 minutes, approximately 4.58 grams of the element is remaining.