Radioactive Decay Coin Experiment

Radioactive Decay Coin ExperimentUnderstanding radioactive decay by experimenting with coins.AbstractThe aim of this report is to parade how to simulate the radioactive decay process using coins as a safer method of learning, the report is divided into six partsIntroduction radioactivity, radioactive decay, half-life and the main purpose of the experiments argon explained here. Hypothesis of both labs are detailed here.Method the method to carryout both experiments is in detail in this section, provided in a step by step style that a reader wad replicate the experiment himself.Results and discussion The results of laboratory 1 and Lab 2 are thoroughly discussed and analyzed in this section, and my hypothesis is held against the final results of the experiment.Conclusion the final thought on the results from the experiments and if they did prove the hypothesis or non.References a full angle of dip of altogether the references that contributed to this report are provided.Appendi x all the final data from Lab 1 and Lab 2 are provided for reference.IntroductionRadioactivity freighter be described as the particles which are emitted from a nuclei as a result of nuclear instability. Radioactive decay is when the isotopes are unstable they tend to unlade energy in the cause of radiation. There are a thorough of three main examples of radiation or radioactive decay this depends on the type of the isotopeAlpha decay When there are numerous protons in a meat the element will start to bring down radiation in the form of positive charged particles these are called alpha particles.Beta decay When there are numerous neutrons in a nucleus the element will discharge radiation in the form of negative charged particles, these are called beta particles.Gamma decay When there is an excessive amount of energy in the nucleus the gamma particles with no overall charge are discharged from the element.The half-life of an isotope can be explained as the average era that takes half of the total human body of atoms in a sample to decay eventually.What this experiment aims to show is how probability is related to radioactive decay.We use coins in this experiment as a lesson that reflects the randomness of the radioactive decay process. Keeping in mind the randomness of the results from this experiment, one should expect to achieve the desired results eventually (it is a matter of time and trial and error).This experiment is divided into two parts Lab1 where we deal with a greater second (195 coins in this case) and Lab2 where its a much lesser do (16 coins).Hypothesis of the experiments Since Lab 1 uses a large number of coins (195) there is a probability of 50% that the coins will flip if all of them were to be move at once, and this can be a very good reconcileative of how half the atoms in an isotope will decay (half-life). I think that the same can be said about Lab 2 as I expect 50% of the 16 coins to decay as probability is the same disre gardless of the number of coins.MethodLab 1 we put 195 five pence coins in a big black box shaped folder (all of the coins with their heads side cladding up) and shook the box 20 intense shakes severally attempt and then we proceed to open the box and count how slightly coins flipped to their tails side (this represent decaying) and the result gets recorded (number stinky each attempt, accumulated no. decayed and coins left over(p)) at the end of each trial the decayed coins are removed from the box. We suffer doing this experiment until all coins are flipped to their tails side (decayed).Lab 2 This time we are using less number of coins (16 five pence coins) and we put them in a plastic shape, for each attempt we shake the cup then we flipped the cup upside down on a table, then we check how m whatever coins flipped to their tails side (decayed) for this first obligate and we record them, then we put back the heads facing coins back to the cup and we repeat the process of shaking the cup and flipping it on the table until we have 2 heads facing coins or less, and we record how many attempts it took us to have 2 heads coins or less. All of this count as one trial, we do this process for up to 50 trials. Each trial gets recorded separately (Number of coins decayed first throw and number of throws to get 2 or less).An alternative way to do the experiment if it is difficult to do physically is using this online coin toss simulator http//nrich.maths.org/7220Results and discussionThe results for lab 1 were confusable to what I had in theory, round 50% of the coins decayed in the first trial and second trial, then the percentage became lesser and more random as the trials goes by.Figure 1 number of coins left (shown as circle markers) and the accumulated number of decayed coins (shown as square markers) against the number of trials.It can be detect in figure 1 that the more coins we have (starting at 195) the high the decay rate (that can be observed), but the lesser number of coins left the less obvious probability of the coins decaying even though the probability is the same (as the randomness of the decaying process is not related to a certain number of coins) as to make the decaying more obvious in smaller number of coins we did Lab 2Figure 2 Frequency of the decayed coins in the first throw.As shown in figure 2 the frequence of the 16 coins decaying in the first throw in each trial of the 50 trials is 9 which is still approximately 50% of the total number of coins, this proves my point that the probability of the coins flipping to their tails side (decaying) is the same regardless of the number of the coins in each experiment. Furthermore, the total number of coins decayed out of 16 coins in all of the 50 trials has been calculated and the total percentage was 47.75% again this is approximately 50% of the total number of coins in all of the 50 trials.Figure 3 Frequency of the number of throw to get 2 or lessIn figure 3 which show the frequency of how many throw of coins we need to reach 2 non-decaying coins or less in each trial (we stop at 2 rather than nought because it will take unnecessary large number of throws per trial), it further proves my hypothesis of the probability of 50% coins decaying as the most frequent number of throws to reach 2 or less was 3, we explain this by saying because 9 coins will mostly flip in the first throw (approximately 50% of the 16 total coins) it will take mostly 3 throws to reach 2 coins in the end because 50% of the coins will probably decay in each throw16 Coins 50% Decay rate (In the first throw) 8 Coins 50% Decay rate 4 Coins 50% Decay rate 2 Coins or less = 4 total number of throws going at a decay rate of approximately 50%, 3 throws to reach 2 or less is the most frequent number (also to back up this claim a calculation has been made by calculating the most frequent number of throw to get 2 or less over the total number of 50 trials and the average was 3.08 as provided in the appendix).The decaying process is random in its nature so even if it is likely for the coins to have a 50% decay rate in the experiment done, it cannot be taken for granted.Despite the feature that this final results for this experiment were satisfactory there was still some room for human error in this case, this can vary between simply not counting the coins correctly, to actually losing some of the coins. The experiment could easily be improved by doing the two labs two times between two students and they can correspond the results afterwards. Another improvement can be done to the equipment that was being used as the box folder used in lab 1 had some holes in it that was not perfect for shaking the coins inside. Otherwise the coins themselves were all of the same kind (five pence) all of them having the same size and shape helped greatly in avoiding any confusion for the students doing the experiment. Obliviously since this is a student level experimen t the equipment and method used were humble but satisfactory, but if this experiment were to be replicated by a higher level institution for a more serious cause then a machine should be used for tossing and counting the coins to get more absolute results.ConclusionThe final results of the experiment were satisfactory and have proven my hypothesis and were helpful in understanding the randomness of the radioactive decay process, but as mentioned before, we can achieve better and more accurate results using more advanced methods.References(Ducksters,2015)http//www.ducksters.com/science/chemistry/radiation_and_radioactivity.php(Physics.org)http//www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=71(Mini Physics)http//www.miniphysics.com/radioactive-decay.html(Probability Formula,2011)http//www.probabilityformula.org/AppendixTable 1 Lab 1 resultsTable 2 Lab 2 resultsTable 3 A frequency table of the number of coins decaying in the first throw of each of the 50 trials.Table 4 A frequency table of the number of throws to get 2 non-decayed coins or less throughout the 50 trials.