Radioactive Element X Decays to Element Y with Decay Constant $- 0.5$

Multiple Choice

Radioactive element X decays to element Y with decay constant $- 0.5$ . Y, in turn, decays to stable element Z with decay constant $- 0.1$ . What is the system of differential equations for the amounts, $x ( t ) , y ( t ) , z ( t )$ of the elements X, Y, Z, respectively, at time t, if the initial conditions are $x ( 0 ) = 10 , y ( 0 ) = 0 , z ( 0 ) = 0$ .

A) $\frac { d x } { d t } = - 0.5 x , \frac { d y } { d t } = 0.1 x - 0.5 y , \frac { d z } { d t } = 0.2 y$
B) $\frac { d x } { d t } = - 0.5 x , \frac { d y } { d t } = 0.5 x - 0.1 y , \frac { d z } { d t } = 0.5 y$
C) $\frac { d x } { d t } = - 0.5 x , \frac { d y } { d t } = 0.5 x - 0.1 y , \frac { d z } { d t } = 0.1 y$
D) $\frac { d x } { d t } = - 0.1 x , \frac { d y } { d t } = 0.1 x - 0.5 y , \frac { d z } { d t } = 0.1 y$
E) $\frac { d x } { d t } = - 0.1 y , \frac { d y } { d t } = 0.5 x - 0.1 z , \frac { d z } { d t } = 0.5 y$