Half life experiment.

Purpose: Do a simulation of half life

Equipment : 20 dices

Theory: Half life to a radioactive isotope is dependent on the probability for the unstable
core to emit radioactive radiation, in a given time period. For some radioactive isotopes the
probability is high that the core will emit radiation, those isotopes have a short half life. For
other isotopes the probability is low, and they have a long half life. We can use dices to
simulate this phenomenon. We will pretend that each time we roll a 6, the unstable isotope
emits radiation, and gets transformed to another isotope.

Simulation instructions:

1. Throw all of the dices at the same time. Remove all the dices that lande don 6. Note
in the table how many “non-6” you have left.
2. Repeat point 1. Till you have thrown 1o times, or all of your dices have landed on 6.
3. Do the same again for a new series, with all of the 20 dices.
4. Put all your result in a tabel, and combine all the 5 series into one.
5. Present your result graphicly, where the x-axis is the nuber of throws, and the y-axis
is the number of dices left.

Results:

Number of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
dices left after
throw nr…
Series 1 20
Series 2 20
Series 3 20
Series 4 20
Series 5 20
Combined 100

Conclution: Try to explain how this experiment can simulate the half life of an isotope.

If we pretend that one throw equals one minute. Can you calculate the half-life of your
combined series?