13N decays with a half-life of approximately 10 min to produce 13C, a stable isotope of carbon. For a 1.0g sample of 13N, after one half-life, what mass of 13N remains? What has happened to the remaining mass?
After one half-life, mass of [tex]^{13}\textrm{N}[/tex] remains equal to 0.50 g. Remaining 0.50 g of mass gets converted to [tex]^{13}\textrm{C}[/tex] nuclide.
Explanation:
Half-life of a radioactive nuclide represents the time required for mass of the radioactive nuclide becomes half of it's original amount.
Here initial amount of radioactive [tex]^{13}\textrm{N}[/tex] is 1.0 g.
So, after one half-life, mass of [tex]^{13}\textrm{N}[/tex] remains equal to [tex](\frac{1.0}{2})g[/tex] or 0.50 g.
As radioactive decay of [tex]^{13}\textrm{N}[/tex] nuclide yields [tex]^{13}\textrm{C}[/tex] therefore the remaining 0.50 g of mass gets converted to [tex]^{13}\textrm{C}[/tex] nuclide
