The initial activity of a certain radioactive isotope was measured as $16000 \ counts \ min^{-1}$. Given that the only activity measured was due to this isotope and that its activity after $12 \ h$ was $2000 \ counts \ min^{-1}$,its half-life,in hours,is nearest to

If the measurement errors in all the independent quantities are known,then it is possible to determine the error in any dependent quantity. This is done by the use of series expansion and truncating the expansion at the first power of the error. For example,consider the relation $z = x / y$. If the errors in $x, y$ and $z$ are $\Delta x, \Delta y$ and $\Delta z$,respectively,then $z \pm \Delta z = \frac{x \pm \Delta x}{y \pm \Delta y} = \frac{x}{y} (1 \pm \frac{\Delta x}{x}) (1 \pm \frac{\Delta y}{y})^{-1}$. The series expansion for $(1 \pm \frac{\Delta y}{y})^{-1}$,to first power in $\Delta y / y$,is $1 \mp (\Delta y / y)$. The relative errors in independent variables are always added. So the error in $z$ will be $\Delta z = z (\frac{\Delta x}{x} + \frac{\Delta y}{y})$. The above derivation makes the assumption that $\Delta x / x \ll 1, \Delta y / y \ll 1$. Therefore,the higher powers of these quantities are neglected.
$(1)$ Consider the ratio $r = \frac{(1 - a)}{(1 + a)}$ to be determined by measuring a dimensionless quantity $a$. If the error in the measurement of $a$ is $\Delta a$ $(\Delta a / a \ll 1)$,then what is the error $\Delta r$?
$(2)$ In an experiment,the initial number of radioactive nuclei is $3000$. It is found that $1000 \pm 40$ nuclei decayed in the first $1.0 \ s$. For $|x| < 1$,$\ln(1 + x) = x$ up to first power in $x$. The error $\Delta \lambda$,in the determination of the decay constant $\lambda$,in $s^{-1}$,is:

$A$ radioactive material is reduced to $1/8$ of its original amount in $3$ days. If $8 \times 10^{-3} \, kg$ of the material is left after $5$ days,the initial amount of the material is $....... \, g$.

State the law of radioactive decay.

Two different radioactive elements with half-lives $T_1$ and $T_2$ have undecayed atoms $N_1$ and $N_2$ respectively present at a given instant. The ratio of their activities at that instant is

Two radioactive materials $X_1$ and $X_2$ have decay constants $10 \lambda$ and $\lambda$ respectively. If initially they have the same number of nuclei, then the ratio of the number of nuclei of $X_1$ to that of $X_2$ will be $1 / e$ after a time: