Radioactive Decay
Objective: to study the radioactive decay of materials.Understand the  concept of half life and randomness ofthe radioactive decay
Run the case of H3 decay to He3:
- Go to “Multiple Atoms†tab
- Start with 80 atoms by clicking on the bucket.
- Start running and record the time when the number of H3 ischanging to 40, 20, 10, and 5.This is accumulative time
- Repeat the above step 5 times and average them
(below is an example of table that you need to create):
Count | Time (trial 1) | Time (trial2) | Time (trial3) | Time (trial4) | Time (trial5) | Average time |
40 | 12.4 | | | | | |
20 | 27.3 | | | | | |
10 | 39.5 | | | | | |
5 | 55.6 | | | | | |
- Using Excel plot count (y-axis) vs. average time (X-axis)(example below)
- Use exponential trend to fit the data, make sure the trend lineequation is in the plot.
Find half life by following below steps:
- Find the intersection of line to y axis (in your equation forx=0), in this example is 77.77 counts
- Calculate half of the number from step 1 (in this case 77.77/2=39)
- Find the time that correspond to counts from step 2. You candraw a line in your plot by hand or use equation in the plot.
- Record that value as a half life of the H3 decay.
Dear chegg, this is the questions you can help me to answer:
Answer the following questions for your report:
- What does half life means?
- Why your 5 trial numbers are different?
- What can you conclude from this experiment?
