Radiation Worksheet

Part 1

1. The graph above represents the nuclear decay of a radioactive element,

measured using a radiation-detecting device. What is the half-life, in days, of this
hypothetical element?
The half-life is 2 days.
2. If the half-life of a given substance is 65 days, how long will it take for a 100-
gram sample of the substance to decay until there is only 25 grams of the
radioactive material remaining?
If the half-life of a given substance is 65 days, the 100-gram sample substance
will take 130 days to decay until there is only 25 grams remaining.
3. If a sample of radioactive isotopes takes 60 minutes to decay from 200 grams to
50 grams, what is the half-life of the isotope? Hint: First, determine how many
times the sample has lost half of its mass, which tells you how many half-life
cycles have occurred.
The half-life of the isotope is 30 minutes.
4. If a 500.0 g sample of technetium-99 decays to 62.5 g of technetium-99
remaining in 639,000 years, what is the half-life of technetium-99?
The half life of technetium-99 would be 213,000 years.

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 Part 2
Listen to the podcast (© 2015 The New York Times Company) to answer these
questions.
1. How does a cell phone use radiation to function?
Wireless transmissions happen through radiation. Transmission radiation carries
the call/messages to the cell tower which thn carries the call/message to another
cellphone.
2. Compare and contrast this type from other types of radiation.
Microwave radiation is much weaker than ionizing radiation. On our cell phones,
we use non-ionizing radiation which is less harmful to humans and does not
cause cancer.
3. How can cell phone radiation be harmful to people?
Cell phone radiation can be harmful to people through long-term heavy usage.
4. Do we know for sure if cell phones cause health risks? Why or why not?
We know from research that there are tumor risks from long-term heavy usage of
cell phones on the side of the head. We do not know what other risks exactly that
they can cause because there is not much research or expertise about it.
5. Based on what you heard in this podcast, do you think you are "frying your brain"
with your cell phone? Why or why not?
Based on what I heard in this podcast, I do think that we are slowly “frying our
brains” with our cell phones because we use them so often. Younger generations
use them more and more, and they are probably going to be the ones who use
the most and for the longest periods of time, so I do believe that all that time
does “fry our brains” and will later cause some health concerns.
6. If you were a scientist, how would you test if cell phones cause health risks?
What type of experiment might you design to figure out if you are frying your
brain with your cell phone?
I would gather people with higher and lower screen times using cell phones and
measuring the amount of radiation emitted in urbanized and more rural areas. It
would be an experiment monitored over a long period of time so that we could
try to observe the long-term effects the radiation might have. After that we would
scan their brains and do certain tests to determine the effects the radiation
might’ve had.

Part 3: Evaluation Questions

Read the excerpts below from “Space faring: The Radiation Challenge” and
“International Space Station Internal Radiation Monitoring” released by Nasa

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 (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1043.html)
(https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/284273main_Radiation_HS_Mod1.pdf)
“Internal radiation monitoring on board the International Space Station (ISS) is
responsible for gathering, analyzing, and interpreting the internal environment radiation
data for the ISS in order to help ensure crew health protection. Detailed consideration of
radiation effects during design, development, and operation of the station has kept it
largely immune to harm from radiation, but more work is needed to address events such
as solar flares (ISS Internal Radiation Monitoring, NASA).”
“Earth’s biggest source of radiation is the Sun, which emits electromagnetic radiation at
all wavelengths. The majority is in the form of visible, infrared and ultraviolet radiation
(UV). But solar flares also release massive amounts of energy out into space in the form
of x-rays gamma rays, and streams of protons and electrons called solar particle events.
While many forms of non-ionizing and ionizing radiation have become essential to our
every-day life, each kind of radiation can cause damage to living and non-living objects.
Precautions are necessary to prevent unnecessary risks. (Space faring: The Radiation
Challenge, NASA).”
1. These excerpts make two claims related to radiation exposure and safety. What
are these claims? (Hint: A claim is an assertion that something is true without
providing evidence.)
1. “Each kind of radiation can cause damage to living and non-living
objects.”
2. “Detailed consideration of radiation effects during design, development,
and operation of the station has kept it largely immune to harm from
radiation”

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 https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/284273main_Radiation_HS_Mod1.pdf

2. Review the chart above. What information about ultraviolet radiation supports or
contradicts the safety of solar radiation exposure to astronauts on the
international space station?
Based on the chart, ultraviolet radiation is closer to ionizing radiation, the more
harmful kind of radiation. This contradicts the safety of solar radiation exposure
to astronauts on the international space station because they undermine the
strength of ultraviolet radiation.

The table shows the amount of time astronauts spent on the surface of Moon during
each lunar landing, and the average radiation dose they received
Lunar Surface
Mission Total Duration Duration Average Radiation Dose*

Apollo 11 08 days, 03 hours, 13 21 hours, 38 0.18 rad

minutes minutes

Apollo 12 10 days, 4 hours, 31 31 hours, 31 0.58 rad

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 minutes minutes

Apollo 14 9 days, 1 minute 33 hours, 31 1.14 rad

minutes

Apollo 15 10 days, 1 hour, 11 66 hours, 54 0.30 rad

minutes minutes

Apollo 16 11 days, 1 hour, 51 71 hours, 2 0.51 rad

minutes minutes

Apollo 17 12 days, 13 hours, 51 74 hours, 59 0.55 rad

minutes minutes

*Average radiation dose information can be found on the Life Sciences Data Archive at
JSC3
3. From the radiation data of past space missions (above), what concerns should
future astronauts have about living in space for long periods of time? (Support
your answers with data from chart and content from the lesson.)
From the radiation data of past space missions, future astronauts should have
concerns about the radiation they are being exposed to from living in space for
long periods of time. On Apollo 14, they hadn’t even spent the most time on the
lunar surface out of the 6 missions, but in just 33 hours and 32 minutes, they had
received the highest average radiation exposure at 1.14 rad.
4. Based on your knowledge of particle and ionization energy, are any of the claims
made in the excerpts valid and reliable? Explain your reasoning for both claims.
The first claim is valid and reliable because it is true that any form of radiation,
ionizing and non-ionizing, can still do some harm. For the other claim, on the
other hand, I think it is not as reliable and valid because in the chart you could
see that the astronauts were still exposed to different levels of radiation despite
the fact that they “kept [the station] largely immune to harm from radiation.”

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