Reaction Concentration and Time for 1st Order Reactions (5)
First order reactions have a special property known as the half life. If we wait enough time until the initial concentration has been halved, we find that if we wait this same amount of time again, the concentration has been halved again, i.e., is now 1/4 of the original. If we wait yet another half-life we find the concentration is now 1/8 of the original. Each time we wait a half-life amount of time, the concentration halves from the starting to the ending point of the time interval. Algebraically, we have