half-life

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the time required for exactly half of the atoms in a sample of a radioactive element to undergo radioactive decay, a characteristic constant for each radioactive isotope that ranges from fractions of a second for highly unstable artificial nuclides to billions of years for naturally occurring radioactive elements; the half-life concept allows prediction of how much of a radioactive material will remain after any given period, through successive halving at each half-life interval; it has applications in nuclear waste management for determining storage timescales, in nuclear medicine for designing treatment and imaging protocols with radionuclides, in radiometric dating of geological and archaeological materials, and in the monitoring and safeguarding of nuclear materials to prevent diversion