We obviously cannot wait for 4 million years to determine the half-life of technetium, or even 87.7 years to determine the half-life of plutonium. The half-life of a substance is determined using a Geiger counter, which is essentially a tube filled with an inert gas. When a particle decays and produces radiation, it briefly ionizes the gas and produces a detectable electric pulse, which is amplified and counted by a detector (before digital displays were available, you would hear clicks and see a needle register on a dial). Determine the formula for the half-life of a substance, H(M), with an initial count of N0 pulses and a count of N1 pulses M minutes later.

We obviously cannot wait for 4 million years to determine the half-life of technetium, or even 87.7 years to determine the half-life of plutonium. The half-life of a substance is determined using a Geiger counter, which is essentially a tube filled with an inert gas. When a particle decays and produces radiation, it briefly ionizes the gas and produces a detectable electric pulse, which is amplified and counted by a detector (before digital displays were available, you would hear clicks and see a needle register on a dial). Determine the formula for the half-life of a substance, H(M), with an initial count of N0 pulses and a count of N1 pulses M minutes later.