Half life of M and M's?

Answer 1

The half life of M&Ms is highly dependent on three things: the person eating them, the form in which they take--plain or peanut?--and the container size. Anyone asking about half-lives knows the term refers to the time it takes half the atoms in a sample of a radionucleotide to transform into something else. Normally the product they transform into is an inert metal like lead. (Lead is toxic. Uranium is worse.) In the case of M&Ms, they transform into chocolatey goodness in your tummy. For instance, the half-life of any pound bag of plain M&Ms that falls into my possession is an hour. If I work at it hard enough, I can kill a pound of M&Ms in about two hours unless I'm driving and then it's at least a day because I have to shift. If you give a young child a vending machine bag of them, their half-life is maybe five minutes because M&Ms are good and children have no self-control. But if you were to give a Fun Size bag of plain M&Ms to my wife its half-life would be measured in centuries because she doesn't like the plain ones.

Answer 2

The half-life of an element, such as radioactive isotope M, refers to the time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample to undergo radioactive decay. The term "M&M's" typically refers to the popular candy, which does not have a biological or chemical half-life in the same sense as radioactive isotopes.