Half of a sample of cobalt-60 decays after 5.26 years to form atoms of another element. half of a sample of iodine-131 decays after 8.1 days to form atoms of another element. which best explains this difference? 1choice 1 iodine-131 has a smaller atomic number than cobalt-60. 2choice 2 iodine-131 has a shorter half-life than cobalt-60. 3choice 3 iodine-131 has a smaller atomic mass than cobalt-60. 4choice 4 iodine-131 has half the radioactive energy of cobalt-60.

Iodine-131 has a shorter half-life than cobalt-60.

Explanation:

We are given;

Half of a cobalt-60 sample decays after 5.26 years Half of an Iodine-131 sample decays after 8.1 days

We are supposed to explain the difference between the two instances;

We need to define half life;

Half life is the time half of a given sample takes to decay leaving the other half of it.Therefore;If half of a cobalt-60 sample decays after 5.26 years then the half life of cobalt-60 is 5.26 years.On the other hand, if half of an Iodine-131 sample decays after 8.1 days, then the half life of Iodine-131 is 8.1 days.We can therefore, conclude that, Iodine-131 has a shorter half-life than cobalt-60.

The correct answer is b