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, 2003

Algebra Difficulty 3.0 AMC 10/12 Prove it Canada

A lead box contains samples of two radioactive isotopes of iron. Isotope A decays so that after every 6 minutes, the number of atoms remaining is halved. Initially, there are twice as many atoms of isotope A as of isotope B, and after 24 minutes there are the same number of atoms of each isotope. How long does it take the number of atoms of isotope B to halve?

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Source: CEMC, University of Waterloo, licensed CC-BY-NC-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project. Solutions are the publisher's, linked not copied.