Understanding Our Universe 1st Edition

Palen Solutions Manual

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 Chapter 6 Terrestrial Worlds in the Inner Solar System ◆ 115

Name: _______________________

Section: _______________________

RADIOACTIVITY ACTIVITY
This activity will use the analogy of bubble wrap to simulate radioactive decay. In this activity, the intact bubbles represent
radioactive parent isotopes and the popped bubbles represent the stable daughter product of radioactive decay. The big
difference here is that instead of nature causing the decay, you will, by randomly poking the bubble wrap.
instructions for bubble popping
1. Count the number of intact bubbles on your sheet of bubble wrap. Record this value in the table below.
2. Set the bubble wrap down on a table and have someone poke the bubble wrap randomly for 10 seconds. (You may
wish to use a pencil eraser to do the poking. Whatever way you pop the bubbles you must use that same method the
entire activity.)
3. After 10 seconds, count the number of remaining intact bubbles. Record this value in the table below.
4. Continue to randomly poke the bubble wrap in bursts of 10 seconds. After every 10 seconds you should count the
number of remaining intact bubbles and record this value in the table below. Repeat until the table is full or all the
bubbles have been popped, which ever happens first.
5. For each timing in the table below, calculate the percent of intact bubbles remaining.
6. Graph your observation data on the grid provided below. Fit your data with a smooth curve (do not just connect the dots!).

Time (seconds) Number of intact bubbles Percent of bubbles still intact

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180

100
90
Percent of intact bubbles

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Time [s]

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 116 ◆ Chapter 6 Terrestrial Worlds in the Inner Solar System

Answer the following questions using your table and graph data from above.
1. Half-life is defined as the amount of time it takes for half of a sample of radioactive material to decay. In this
example, bubble wrap is our “radioactive” material. Using your graph, estimate the half-life of bubble wrap.
(Hint: After how many seconds is there only half the number of intact bubbles you started with remaining?)

2. Imagine that you are given a photograph of someone popping bubbles. You can see in the photos that about a
quarter of the bubbles have been popped. Using your table data and graph, how long has that piece of bubble wrap
been subject to popping?

When minerals form, they do so with specific amounts of each isotope present. Thus, geologists can usually tell by exam-
ining mineral types how much of an isotope was present when a rock formed. By measuring how much of an isotope re-
mains, geologists can use the isotope’s half-life to determine a particular rock’s age (the amount of time since the minerals
formed).
3. Potassium-40 has a half-life of 1.25 billion years. A geologist analyzes a rock and finds that it contains 25 percent of
its original potassium-40 content.
a. How many half-lives have past since this rock was formed?

b. How old is this rock?

c. If the rock were melted down and re-cooled so that all the minerals had to form again, how would that affect the
age measured by radiometric dating?

4. Rubidium-87 has a half-life of 49.4 billion years. Explain why it would be difficult to use this isotope to determine
the age of early hominid remains.

5. Carbon-14 has a half-life of 5,700 years. Explain why it would be difficult to use this isotope to determine the age of
dinosaur bones.

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