Radioactive Decay

We are given that the half-life of A is 62 years, and the ratio of A to B in the sample is 1:15. The relationship between the amount of radioactive substance left and its half-life is governed by the equation: Where: - is the amount of the radioactive substance left after time ,
- is the initial amount of the substance,
- is the half-life of the substance, and
- is the time elapsed.
Here, we know the ratio of the remaining substance A to the product B is 1 : 15, which implies: Using the decay formula and the fact that B is formed as A decays, we can calculate the age of the sample: Given the ratio of 1:15, we substitute into the equation: This gives years. Thus, the age of the sample is 248 years.