Once a certain medicine is in the bloodstream, its half-life is 21 hours. How long will it be before an initial 30cc of the medicine has been reduced to 7cc?

1 Answer
Nov 18, 2016

Here is the formula given by my teacher to solve this problem.

#y=Ab^(t/k)#

Explanation:

A represents the initial amount, in this case, it is 30cc

B is the base, half-life is always 1/2

And t represents time, we are told that it half every 21 hours, hence it should be #t/21#

#7cc = 30cc*(1/2)^(t/21)#

#(7/30) = (1/2)^(t/21) #

#log(7/30) = (t/21) log (1/2)#

#log(7/30)/log (1/2) = (t/21)#

#t = 44.09#

The answer is round to two decimal places.