The half-life principle

The half-life principle refers to the time it takes for half of a given quantity of a substance to decay or be reduced by half. Commonly associated with radioactivity, it can also apply to other fields, such as pharmacology, to describe how quickly a drug’s effect diminishes in the body. For example, if a radioactive material has a half-life of 10 years, after 10 years, only half of the original amount will remain. After another 10 years, only a quarter will remain, and so on. This concept helps us understand processes involving change over time.