An element with mass 990 grams decays by 18.8% per minute. How much of the element is remaining after 13 minutes, to the nearest 1oth of a gram?Answer:
Q. An element with mass 990 grams decays by 18.8% per minute. How much of the element is remaining after 13 minutes, to the nearest 1oth of a gram?Answer:
Understand Problem: Understand the problem and determine what is being asked.We need to calculate the remaining mass of an element after it decays by 18.8% per minute for 13 minutes.
Calculate Decay Factor: Calculate the decay factor per minute. The decay factor is the percentage that remains after the decay occurs. Since the element decays by 18.8%, the remaining percentage is 100%−18.8%=81.2%. To use this in calculations, we convert the percentage to a decimal by dividing by 100. Decay factor per minute = 81.2%/100=0.812
Apply Decay Factor: Apply the decay factor for 13 minutes.To find the remaining mass after 13 minutes, we multiply the initial mass by the decay factor raised to the power of the number of minutes.Remaining mass after 13 minutes = Initial mass × (Decay factor)13
Perform Calculation: Perform the calculation using the initial mass and the decay factor.Initial mass = 990 gramsRemaining mass after 13 minutes = 990×(0.812)13
Calculate Remaining Mass: Calculate the remaining mass using a calculator.Remaining mass after 13 minutes ≈990×(0.812)13≈990×0.105≈103.95 grams
Round Result: Round the result to the nearest tenth of a gram.The remaining mass after 13 minutes, rounded to the nearest tenth of a gram, is approximately 104.0 grams.