After the release of radioactive material into the atmosphere from a nuclear power plant the hay in that country was contaminated by a radioactive isotope (half-life 33 days). If it is safe to feed the hay to cows when 14% of the radioactive isotope remains, how long did the farmers need to wait to use this hay? Round to the nearest tenth.

The decay constant is LaTeX:  \displaystyle k = \frac{\ln 2}{33} . This gives the equation LaTeX:  \displaystyle 0.14 = e^{-\frac{\ln(2)}{33}t} Taking the natural logarithm of both sides gives LaTeX:  \displaystyle \ln(0.14)= \frac{-t\ln(2)}{33} . Solving for LaTeX:  \displaystyle t gives LaTeX:  \displaystyle t = -\frac{ 33\ln(0.14) }{ \ln(2) } . The farmers had to wait about 93.6 days.