An element with mass 570 grams decays by 15.2% per minute. How much of the element is remaining after 16 minutes, to the nearest 1oth of a gram?Answer:
Q. An element with mass 570 grams decays by 15.2% per minute. How much of the element is remaining after 16 minutes, to the nearest 1oth of a gram?Answer:
Understand the problem: Understand the problem and determine the formula to use.We know that the element decays by 15.2% per minute. This means that each minute, the element retains 100%−15.2%=84.8% of its mass from the previous minute. To find the remaining mass after 16 minutes, we will apply the decay percentage repeatedly for 16 times.
Convert to decimal: Convert the decay percentage to a decimal to use in calculations.15.2% as a decimal is 10015.2=0.152. Therefore, the remaining percentage as a decimal is 1−0.152=0.848.
Calculate remaining mass: Calculate the remaining mass after each minute.We will use the formula for exponential decay, which is:Remaining mass = Initial mass ×(1−decay rate)number of time periodsIn this case, the initial mass is 570 grams, the decay rate is 0.152, and the number of time periods is 16 minutes.
Perform calculation: Perform the calculation using the formula.Remaining mass after 16 minutes = 570×(0.848)16
Calculate exact value: Calculate the exact value using a calculator.Remaining mass after 16 minutes ≈570×(0.848)16≈570×0.049≈27.93 grams
Round the result: Round the result to the nearest tenth of a gram.The remaining mass after 16 minutes, rounded to the nearest tenth of a gram, is approximately 27.9 grams.