Introduction to Exponential Decay

SAL: Two videos ago we learned
about half-lives.

And we saw that they're good if
we are trying to figure out

how much of a compound we have
left after one half-life, or

two half-lives, or
three half-lives.

We can just take 1/2 of the
compound at every period.

But it's not as useful if we're
trying to figure out how

much of a compound we have after
1/2 of a half-life, or

after one day, or 10 seconds,
or 10 billion years.

And to address that issue in the
last video, I proved that

it involved a little bit
of sophisticated math.

And if you haven't taken
calculus, you can really just

skip that video.

You don't have to watch it
for an intro math class.

But if you're curious, that's
where we proved

the following formula.

That at any given point of
time, if you have some

decaying atom, some element,
it can be described as the

amount of element you have at
any period of time is equal to

the amount you started off
with, times e to some

constant-- in the last
video I use lambda.

I could use k this time--
minus k times t.

And then for a particular
element with a particular

half-life you can just solve for
the k, and then apply it

to your problem.

So let's do that in this video,
just so that all of

these variables can become a
little bit more concrete.

So let's figure out the general
formula for carbon.

Carbon-14, that's the one that
we addressed in the half-life.

We saw that carbon-14 has a
half-life of 5,730 years.

So let's see if we can somehow
take this information and

apply it to this equation.

So this tells us that after
one half-life-- so

t is equal to 5,730.

N of 5,730 is equal to the
amount we start off with.

So we're starting off with,
well, we're starting off with

N sub 0 times e to the minus--
wherever you see the t you put

the minus 5,730-- so minus
k, times 5,730.

That's how many years
have gone by.

And half-life tells us that
after 5,730 years we'll have

1/2 of our initial
sample left.

So we'll have 1/2 of our
initial sample left.

So if we try to solve
this equation for

k, what do we get?

Divide both sides by N naught.

Get rid of that variable, and
then we're left with e to the

minus 5,730k-- I'm just
switching these two around--

is equal to 1/2.

If we take the natural log of
both sides, what do we get?

The natural log of e to
anything, the natural log of e

to the a is just a.

So the natural log of this is
minus 5,730k is equal to the

natural log of 1/2.

I just took the natural
log of both sides.

The natural log and natural
log of both sides of that.

And so to solve for k, we could
just say, k is equal to

the natural log of 1/2 over
minus 5,730, which we did in

the previous video.

But let's see if we can do that
again here, to avoid--

for those who might
have skipped it.

So if you have 1/2, 0.5, take
the natural log, and then you

divide it by 5,730, it's a
negative 5,730, you get 1.2

times 10 to the negative 4.

So it equals 1.2 times
10 to the minus 4.

So now we have the general
formula for carbon-14, given

its half-life.

At any given point in time,
after our starting point-- so

this is for, let's call this for
carbon-14, for c-14-- the

amount of carbon-14 we're going
to have left is going to

be the amount that we started
with times e to the minus k. k

we just solved for.

1.2 times 10 to the minus 4,
times the amount of time that

has passed by.

This is our formula for
carbon, for carbon-14.

If we were doing this for some
other element, we would use

that element's half-life to
figure out how much we're

going to have at any given
period of time to figure out

the k value.

So let's use this to
solve a problem.

Let's say that I start off
with, I don't know, say I

start off with 300 grams
of carbon, carbon-14.

And I want to know, how much do
I have after, I don't know,

after 2000 years?

How much do I have?

Well I just plug into
the formula.

N of 2000 is equal to the amount
that I started off

with, 300 grams, times e to the
minus 1.2 times 10 to the

minus 4, times t, is times
2000, times 2000.

So what is that?

So I already have that 1.2 times
10 the minus 4 there.

So let me say, times 2000
equals-- and of course, this

throws a negative out there,
so let me put the negative

number out there.

So there's a negative.

And I have to raise
e to this power.

So it's 0.241.

So this is equal to N of 2000.

The amount of the substance I
can expect after 2000 years is

equal to 300 times e to
the minus 0.2419.

And let's see, my calculator
doesn't have an e to the

power, so Let me just take e.

I need to get a better
calculator.

I should get my scientific
calculator back.

But e is, let's say 2.71-- I
can keep adding digits but

I'll just do 2.71-- to the 0.24
negative, which is equal

to 0.78 times the amount that I
started off with, times 300,

which is equal to 236 grams. So
this is equal to 236 grams.

So just like that, using this
exponential decay formula, I

was able to figure out how
much of the carbon I have

after kind of an unusual
period of time, a

non-half-life period of time.

Let's do another
one like this.

Let's go the other way around.

Let's say, I'm trying
to figure out.

Let's say I start off with
400 grams of c-14.

And I want to know how long--
so I want to know a certain

amount of time-- does it
take for me to get to

350 grams of c-14?

So, you just say that 350
grams is how much

I'm ending up with.

It's equal to the amount that I
started off with, 400 grams,

times e to the minus k.

That's minus 1.2 times 10 to
the minus 4, times time.

And now we solve for time.

How do we do that?

Well we could divide
both sides by 400.

What's 350 divided by 400?

350 by 400.

It's 7/8.

So 0.875.

So you get 0.875 is equal to e
to the minus 1.2 times 10 to

the minus 4t.

You take the natural
log of both sides.

You get the natural log of
0.875 is equal to-- the

natural log of e to anything is
just the anything-- so it's

equal to minus 1.2 times
10 to the minus 4t.

And so t is equal to this
divided by 1.2 times 10

to the minus 4.

So the natural log, 0.875
divided by minus 1.2 times 10

to the minus 4, is equal to the
amount of time it would

take us to get from
400 grams to 350.

[PHONE RINGS]

My cell phone is ringing,
let me turn that off.

To 350.

So let me do the math.

So if you have 0.875, and we
want to take the natural log

of it, and divide it by minus
1.-- So divided by 1.2e 4

negative, 10 to the
negative 4.

This is all a negative number.

Oh, I'll just divide it by this,
and then just take the

negative of that.

Equals that and then I have
to take a negative.

So this is equal to 1,112 years
to get from 400 to 350

grams of my substance.

This might seem a little
complicated, but if there's

one thing you just have to do,
is you just have to remember

this formula.

And if you want to know where
it came from, watch the

previous video.

For any particular element you
solve for this k value.

And then you just substitute
what you know, and then solve

for what you don't know.

I'll do a couple more of these
in the next video.