High School

Tritium (hydrogen-3) has a half-life of 12.3 years. How old is a bottle of wine if the tritium content is determined to be 25% compared to a new bottle of wine?

Answer :

Answer:

24.6 years

Explanation:

Applying,

A = (A')[tex]2^{a/n}[/tex]..................... Equation 1

Where A = Original Tritium content in the wine, A' = Tritium content in the wine after decay, a = age of the old bottle, n = half life of Tritium

From the question,

Let A = X, therefore, A' = 0.25X

Given: n = 12.3 years

Substitute these values into equation 1

X = 0.25X([tex]2^{a/n}[/tex])

1 = 0.25×([tex]2^{a/12.3}[/tex])

1/0.25 =

4 = [tex]2^{a/12.3}[/tex]

[tex]2^{a/12.3}[/tex] = 2²

Equation the base,

a/12.3 = 2

a = 12.3×2

a = 24.6 years

Final answer:

The bottle of wine is approximately 24.6 years old. This is determined by considering that tritium has halved twice to reach 25% content, going through two of its half-lives (12.3 years each).

Explanation:

The age of the bottle of wine can be determined by understanding the concept of half-life in nuclear physics. Tritium, also known as hydrogen-3, has a known half-life of 12.3 years. The half-life is the time it takes for half of a sample to decay. In this case, the tritium content has reduced to 25%, which means two half-lives have passed because the tritium content has halved twice (from 100% to 50%, then from 50% to 25%). As such, if we multiply the half-life of tritium (12.3 years) by two, we get an approximate age of the wine bottle, which is 24.6 years.

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