Question #b61f8

1 Answer
Mar 19, 2014

At 3:30pm there will be approximately 0.5868mg of fluorine.

The original amount (10.0 mg) is going to be halved every half-life. So, every 110 minutes, the amount is halved. After the first hour, 10mg --> 5mg. Second hour, 5mg --> 2.5mg. And so on.

We have to first figure out how many half-lives are within the time period. From 8:00am to 3:30pm is 7 hours, 30 minutes, or 7.5 hours. To calculate how many hours 110 minutes is, divide by 60 minutes (1 hour) --> #(110"min")/(60"min")# = #1# #5/6# hours.

We can figure out the number of half-lives by dividing our total amount of time by the length of a single half-life.
Number of half lives = #(7 1/2)/(1 5/6)# hours = #4# #1/11# half lives

Leftover amount: Original amount x #(1/2)^("number of half lives")#
= 10.0mg x #(1/2)^(4 1/11)# = 0.5868mg (rounded)