To find the half-life of M&Ms/Coins/Paper/(anything with a 50% chance of decay)

Trial 1.............................. Trial 2.............................. Trial 3.............................. Average

Time Number Number Number Number Number Number number
no. of throws which decay left which decay left which decay left left
0 0 50 0 50 0 50 50
1 13 37 24 26 20 30 31
2 17 20 15 11 14 16 16
3 7 13 8 3 7 9 8
4 5 8 2 1 3 6 5
5 1 7 1 0 1 5 4
6 1 6 0 0 2 3 3
7 3 3 0 0 2 1 1
8 0 3 0 0 0 1 1
9 1 2 0 0 0 1 1
10 1 1 0 0 1 0 0

Graph:
60
Number remaining
against
number of throws 50

1st set of data

40
This graph is likely to
be quite bumpy (not
smooth) so do three 30
repeats and take an
average (shown on
the graph below). 20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Average n u m ber rem ain in g

Half life of two-sided object

60

50

40
 60

Average
50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Time (no of throws)

Time to reduce from 50 to 25 1.5 (throws) You will need to read time to one decima
(does not really make sense for number
Time at which there are 40 remaining 0.5 (throws) but if it was time in hours, then it would).
Time at which there are 20 remaining 1.8 (throws)
Time to reduce from 40 to 20 1.3 (throws)

Time at which there are 30 remaining 1.1 (throws)

Time at which there are 15 remaining 2.0 (throws)
Time to reduce from 30 to 15 0.9 (throws)

Average of these 3 half lives, Half life = 1.2 (throws)

12
 10 12

o read time to one decimal place

y make sense for number of throws,
e in hours, then it would).