Question 5

The half-life for a 100-gram sample of radioactive element X is 5 days. How much of element X remains after 10 days have passed?

a
50 g
b
25 g
c
100 g
d
75 g

1 answer

The half-life of a radioactive element is the time it takes for half of the substance to decay. In this case, the half-life of element X is 5 days.

After 5 days (1 half-life), 50 grams of element X will remain from the original 100 grams (half of 100 g).

After another 5 days (a total of 10 days or 2 half-lives), the remaining 50 grams will again be halved. Therefore:

50 g (after 1 half-life) → 25 g (after 2 half-lives)

So, after 10 days, 25 grams of element X will remain.

The correct answer is b) 25 g.