decay time

noun

, Physics.

1. the time required for a collection of atoms of a particular radionuclide to decay to a fraction of the initial number equal to 1/e, where e = 2.7182818 …, used as the base of natural logarithms.

Example Sentences

By counting the numbers of nests and then dividing that number by the product of the average nest decay time and nest construction rate, scientists can get an estimate of the number of bonobos in a region.

From Science News

Counts of these nests can be used to estimate numbers of bonobos — as long as researchers have a good idea of how long a nest sticks around before it’s broken down by the environment, what’s known as the nest decay time.

From Science News

Miller vehemently disagreed, noting that pion clouds explain not only the proton’s antimatter content but various particles’ magnetic moments, charge distributions and decay times, as well as the “binding, and therefore existence, of all nuclei.”

From Quanta Magazine