NAME:___________________

RADIOACTIVE DECAY

Collect the following materials:

 

Procedure:

  1. Place 100 pennies into the tin plate with ALL HEADS UP.
  2. Place the lid on the plate and shake it ONE time.
  3. Remove the lid. Replace the pennies that are now tails up with paper clips. Record the number of pennies remaining in the plate in a data table.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all the pennies have been removed
  5. Remove the paper clips from the plate. Put an "X" on one of the sides of the bottom plate. Place 100 fasteners in the plate.
  6. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all the fasteners have been removed. Remove only the fasteners that point toward the "X". De sure to replace them with paper clips.
  7. Plot both sets of data on the same graph. Graph the "shake number" on the horizontal axis and the "number of pennies or fasteners remaining" on the vertical axis. Be sure to use a different colored pencil for each set of data.

QSNS:
  1. IN this model what do the coins and fasteners represent? The paper clips? The plates? Each shake?

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  2. What was the half-life of the pennies? The fasteners?

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  3. How does the difference between the two objects affect the half-life? Compare the objects to the differences among radioactive elements.

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