The time taken for the radioactivity of a specified isotope to fall to half its original value is called the half-life.

Some friends and I learned about this concept in high school. I think we—or at least I—could remember the definition, but I wasn’t exactly sure what it meant.

I’m still not sure. But like Donald Trump, I have concepts of sureness.

Yeah, what is it about half-life then? Well, we started asking ourselves, "How is your half-life?"

Which, in short, meant:

• How are you?

And in long, it could mean any of the following:

• How is your miserable life?
• How is your barely functional life?
• How is your incomplete (half) life?

Hehehe! It stuck with me. To this day, I still sometimes ask people, "How is your half-life?" I mostly use it to mean "How are you?"—and I think it’s a physics joke.

Why did I write this, and why are you reading it? Because maybe one day I’ll meet you and ask, "How is your half-life?" If you get mad, I’ll tell you it’s a physics joke that just means, "How are you?"

I could even claim it's also a biological joke! Since we have biological half-life which is the time it takes for a subtance to halved in ones body.

And if you don’t believe me—if you think I just made it up on the spot—I’ll show you this very article, written well before I ever asked you.

This really vindicates me, because now I can always claim I simply meant the first one—"How are you?"—but, well… it could be any of them.

So, how is your half-life, my friend? 😊



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