half-life
See also: halflife
English
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈhæfˌlaɪf/
Noun
half-life (plural half-lives)
- (physics) The time required for half of the nuclei in a sample of a specific isotope to undergo radioactive decay.
- (chemistry) In a chemical reaction, the time required for the concentration of a reactant to fall from a chosen value to half that value.
- (medicine) The time it takes for a substance (drug, radioactive nuclide, or other) to lose half of its pharmacological, physiologic, or radiological activity.
- The time it takes for an idea or a fashion to lose half of its influential power.
- 1991, Robert Ackerman, Introduction to Jane Ellen Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903)
- Most books of scholarship have surprisingly short intellectual 'half-lives during which they make a difference"
- 1991, Robert Ackerman, Introduction to Jane Ellen Harrison's Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (1903)
Translations
time in physics
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chemistry: time required for concentration to fall to half
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medicine: time for a substance to lose half of its activity
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time to lose half of influential power of an idea or fashion
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