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:

1. Find the intersection of line to y axis (in your equation forx=0), in this example is 77.77 counts
2. Calculate half of the number from step 1 (in this case 77.77/2=39)
3. 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.
4. 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?