Half-Life Period and Average Life Period

Half-Life Period and Average Life Period:

Half-Life Period:

It is defined as “the time required for the decay or disintegration of half of the radioactive atoms initially present in a given sample” or “the time during which the concentration of a radioactive substance reduces to one-half of its initial concentration”. It is denoted by t_1/2 or t_0.5. For Example- the half-life for the radioactive decay of uranium-238 is 4.51 x 10⁹ years and that of radium-226 is 1.62 x 10³ years.

Derivation of Expression For Half-Life Period:

We know that rate of radioactive disintegration is expressed as-

Since λ is a constant, the time required for the disintegration of one-half of the original amount of radioactive substance is independent of the initial amount of radioactive substance.

Average Life Period:

Since the whole of a radioactive substance never disintegrates, although its actual quantity becomes too small to be measured i.e. the time of complete decay of radioactive element will be infinity. Thus, instead of total life period, the term Average Life Period is used which is defined as “the reciprocal of the decay constant (λ)”. It is denoted by 𝜏 i.e. 𝜏 = 1/λ.