A screw-top plastic container of 500, 10mm cubes to be used to investigate the topic of half-life.
Radioactive Half Life Activity (Analogue)
A screw-top plastic container of 500, 10mm cubes to be used to investigate the topic of half-life. Each cube has one face identified and the class is actively involved in “throwing” the cubes, which represent atomic nuclei to see how many “decay” during each throw.
Decayed nuclei are removed prior to the next throw and the results give an excellent exponential decay curve without the hazards of using radioactive sources.
In the study of radioactivity, student practicals are difficult to organize because of the hazardous nature of the topic, but this apparatus offers students the opportunity to obtain realistic results in a perfectly safe way. The student set contains ten bowls and 500 small plastic cubes. The cubes have one face identified and represent radioactive nuclei which have ‘;decayed’ when this face is uppermost. Ten groups shake their set of nuclei and roll them out onto the bench. For each throw the decayed nuclei are counted and removed from the set. Excellent results for an exponential decay curve are obtained with increased awareness of the link between activity and the number of nuclei present.