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This is the form of the equation that is most commonly used to describe exponential decay. Any one of decay constant, mean lifetime, or half-life is sufficient to characterise the decay. The notation λ for the decay constant is a remnant of the usual notation for an eigenvalue.
Half-life is constant over the lifetime of an exponentially decaying quantity, and it is a characteristic unit for the exponential decay equation. The accompanying table shows the reduction of a quantity as a function of the number of half-lives elapsed.
Plateau principle. The plateau principle is a mathematical model or scientific law originally developed to explain the time course of drug action (pharmacokinetics). [1] The principle has wide applicability in pharmacology, physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, and system dynamics. It applies whenever a drug or nutrient is infused or ingested at ...
Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Three of the most common types of decay are alpha, beta, and gamma decay.
The half-life of a radioactive isotope (usually denoted by t 1/2) is a more familiar concept than the mean-life, so although the equations above are expressed in terms of the mean-life, it is more usual to quote the value of 14 C 's half-life than its mean-life. The currently accepted value for the half-life of 14 C is 5,700 ± 30 years. [21]
The natural logarithm of e itself, ln e, is 1, because e1 = e, while the natural logarithm of 1 is 0, since e0 = 1. The natural logarithm can be defined for any positive real number a as the area under the curve y = 1/x from 1 to a[4] (with the area being negative when 0 < a < 1). The simplicity of this definition, which is matched in many ...
Half time (physics) Half time is the time taken by a quantity to reach one half of its extremal value, where the rate of change is proportional to the difference between the present value and the extremal value (i.e. in exponential decay processes). It is synonymous with half-life, but used in slightly different contexts.
Biological half-life (elimination half-life, pharmacological half-life) is the time taken for concentration of a biological substance (such as a medication) to decrease from its maximum concentration (C max) to half of C max in the blood plasma. [1][2][3][4][5] It is denoted by the abbreviation . [2][4] This is used to measure the removal of ...