The half-life of a radioactive material is 6hrs. What quantity of 1kg of the material would decay in 24 hours?
Answer Details
The half-life of a radioactive material is the time taken for half of the initial quantity of the material to decay. Therefore, if the half-life of a material is 6hrs, after 6 hours half of the initial quantity of the material would have decayed, and after 12 hours, a quarter of the initial quantity would have decayed. After 18 hours, 1/8 of the initial quantity would have decayed, and after 24 hours, 4 half-lives would have passed, meaning that 1/16 of the initial quantity would have decayed. Therefore, the quantity of 1kg of the material that would decay in 24 hours is 1/16kg.
So the correct option is: 1/16kg.