I have a word problem that I cannot figure out. Can someoneplease help!!! The pr

Question

I have a word problem that I cannot figure out. Can someoneplease help!!! The problem reads: The level of thorium in a sample decreases by a factor of one-half every 2 million years. A meteorite is discovered to have only8.6% of its original thorium remaining. How old is themeteorite? This is supposed to be done as a expotential function and Icannot find an example that is even close in the chapter so anyhelp will be greatly appriciated. I have a word problem that I cannot figure out. Can someoneplease help!!! The problem reads: The level of thorium in a sample decreases by a factor of one-half every 2 million years. A meteorite is discovered to have only8.6% of its original thorium remaining. How old is themeteorite? This is supposed to be done as a expotential function and Icannot find an example that is even close in the chapter so anyhelp will be greatly appriciated.

Explanation / Answer

The half life euqation is equal to 0.086=0.5n wheren is the number of half lives. solve for n to get n=3.53952 half lives. take n*2 million 3.53952*2000000=7.079e6 the meteriod is 7.079 million years old Take the natural log of the first equations to getln(0.086)=ln(0.5)n which is equal to 3.53952

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