Allison's* Problem with Matt
Matt Sandel, who thinks an element should be named for him, just because it would sound cool (sandellium, Sl), goes to see the Wizard of Oz to make his wish come true. "Sure thing Boy Wonder," says the Wizard, "but first, you have to determine the half life of the new element. Here is some data, hop to it!"
Determine the half life of sandellium from the following data:
| time (s) | [Sl] |
| 0 | 1.2 x 10-2 M |
| 5 | 1.0 x 10-2 M |
| 10 | 8.3 x 10-3 M |
*Allison Carey was in the legendary 1999 class with Matt Sandel, the grader for 2002, but Matt did not choose this problem. His application to have an element named after him has been carefully filed with IUPAC and IUPAP (the two organizations responsible for choosing the names of elements). They will call him if they need more information.