If radioactive decay began with 400,000 parent atoms, how many would be left after 3 half lives?

Radioactive Decay: Atom Numbers and Its Effects

Radioactive decay refers to the process by which radioactive atoms release energy or particles in an attempt to become more stable. This process is also known as nuclear decay, or radioactivity, and is often represented as a half-life, which is the amount of time taken for a quantity of a radioactive substance to decay to half its initial value (“Half-Life of Radioactive Isotopes,” n.d.). We will be looking at the changes in the number of atoms over time as radioactive decay starts with 400,000 parent electrons. Radioactive decay starts with 400,000 parent atoms. The number of parent Atoms drops to 200k during the first half-life. The number of parent Atoms drops to 100,000 in the second half-life. Lastly, during the third half-life, the number of parent atoms is reduced to 50,000 (“Radioactivity and Nuclear Reactions,” 2017). The number of remaining parent atoms would then be reduced to 50,000 after three half-lives. The number of parent Atoms drops significantly when radioactive decay occurs at the rate of 400,000…