Physics 160 Laboratory Principles of Modern Physics Laboratory session #8 Radioactive Decay Rate and Half-Life: Pre-Lab

Answer the following questions PRIOR to coming to your lab section. You will not be allowed to participate in any data-collection until you have shown me your pre-lab and I have graded it. Please tape or staple the pre-lab on the page opposite to the first page of your write-up failure to do so will result in losing two points !out of a possible "#$. %how all your wor&.

'. (arefully plot the governing equation !)quation *$+ both in the form presented and in the usual lineari,ed form. In the case of the linear form+ use what you learned in the previous lab about Poisson statistics and uncertainty propagation to write an e-pression for the vertical error bars. %how your wor&.

2. .iven an initial sample si,e of '### particles+ how many particles are left after one half life/ 0wo/ One e-folding time+ / 0wo/ %how your wor&.

Physics 160 Laboratory Session 8: Radioactive Decay Rate and Half-Life

Physics '1# Principles of 2odern Physics 3aboratory session 45 Radioactive Decay Rate and Half-Life
Objectives:
6 6 0o observe the e-ponential decay of a short-lived radioisotope. 0o measure the decay constant and relate it to the decay time and half-life

Introduction
2ost radioactive processes can only happen once for a given radioactive nucleus+ changing the nucleus into another state !possibly a different radioactive state and possibly even a different element$ in the process. 0his means that for a given sample of radioactive material+ the original radioactive substance is constantly being depleted. %ince the rate of these decay events is directly proportional to the number of radioactive nuclei present+ the decay is governed by the differential equation7 d N ( t ) = N ( t )+ !'$ d t where N(t) is the number of nuclei of the original substance at time t+ and the decay constant, + is positive because the amount of the substance is decreasing. 0he solution to this equation is an e-ponential+ namely+
N(t) = N o e t

or

N(t) = N o e t +

!"$

where No is the number of nuclei at time t 8 #s and is the decay time. 9ote that for any system which decays or grows e-ponentially !not :ust radioactive nuclei$+ these equations imply that the rate of decay must also decay e-ponentially with the same decay constant+ i.e.+
dN dN -t = N o e -t = e + dt dt o

!*$

where

dN is the rate of decay at time t 8 #. dt o

0he .eiger-2;ller tube and scaler counts a number of events that is proportional to the number of disintegration events !N$ in a given time interval !t$. %o+ we should be able to use it to observe this e-ponential behavior. 0his wee&+ we will e-amine a substance which decays relatively rapidly !at least as compared with our time in lab$+ and we will be able to measure its decay constant .

Equipment:
<or this e-periment you will be using the same .eiger-2;ller tube and associated electronics !integrated high voltage power supply and scaler$ that you used last wee& in the e-periment on beta and gamma radiation. Recall that a .eiger-2;ller !.2$ tube is a

Physics 160 Laboratory Session 8: Radioactive Decay Rate and Half-Life

cylindrical capacitor consisting of a middle wire held at a positive potential relative to an outer cylinder. 0he potential difference needs to be set to =## >. 0he .2 tube is filled with a gas that is ioni,ed when radiation passes through the tube. 0he electrons from these ions are so rapidly accelerated toward the positive wire they also ioni,e the gas in their path resulting in a large pulse of current. 0he positive ions drift to the outer cylinder to complete the circuit and are de-ioni,ed by acquiring electrons from the cylinder wall. 0he counter adds one to its total for each pulse and reports the final number. ?e will use the computer program %0*@# to control the counter. 0his software is very fle-ible and allows you to set such things as the counting time per run and the total number of runs to do. It also records the results in a table which can be saved to dis& and read by )A()3. You will be using radioactive sources be sure to follo t!e safety instructions "iven in pre-lab lecture#

$ac%"round Radiation:
Before doing any e-periment involving counting radioactivity you need to &now how much radioactivity is naturally present in the environment in the absence of a sample. 0his is called the Cbac&ground radiationD. 0urn on the %0*@# control bo- and ma&e sure that the multiposition &nob is set to R)2O0) operation. 3aunch the %0*@# software from the Programs Physics '1# menu and set the high voltage to =## >. Acquire data that permits you to measure the bac&ground count rate to a precision of appro-imately '#E. You will need to recall an important feature of counting !or Poisson$ statistics that we discussed last wee&. Please remember to account for the bac&ground count rate when you analy,e data from your sample later in this e-ercise.

Prediction:
You will be given a sample of '*FBaG+ a radioactive isotope with a half-life on the order of minutes. %&etch a graph of what you thin& its count rate will loo& li&e as a function of time. 3ineari,e the e-pression for the count rate in the usual way+ i.e.+ determine what needs to be plotted versus what to give a straight line. %&etch this graph+ indicating what will be plotted on each a-is. ?hat will the slope of this line be/

&easurement:
0he barium samples you will study come from barium CcowsD. 0hese actually contain a salt of '*F(s. 0he long-lived '*F(s is constantly decaying and producing '*FBaG !what &ind of decay is this/$+ which then decays in a short time to '*FBa !what &ind of decay is this/$. ?e can e-tract the '*FBaG from the column chemically. These wet sources need to be treated with care. Follow the safety precautions specified in pre-lab. 0he barium samples are quite active. 0o minimi,e the problem of undercounting by the .2 tube+ you may find it useful to ta&e measurements with the sample in a low shelf. Any counts that correspond to count rates significantly more than '### countsHmin !cpm$ will have to be corrected for undercounting at the rate of #.5EH'### cpm. %ince the samples are short-lived+ get set up and ready to ta&e data before getting your sample. You may choose to use your first sample for ma&ing preliminary observations before ta&ing data+ such as7 what count rates you will be dealing with+ what shelf you

Physics 160 Laboratory Session 8: Radioactive Decay Rate and Half-Life

want to use+ how long you want your time windows to be+ and how much total time you have for ta&ing data !and hence how many sequential runs you want to do$. !It ta&es '@*# min. to recharge the barium cows+ so you may have to wait a few minutes for your second sample. 2eanwhile+ you could also find the half-life of '*FBaG on the chart of the nuclides and see how this compares with the data-ta&ing time you have decided upon.$

'nalysis:
2ove your data to )A()3. 9ote that %0*@# records the time of day in hh7mm7ss format. You can convert this to a more convenient form by7 a$ changing the format of these numbers to C.eneralD. 0his will give you the time of day in units of days. b$ (onverting from days to min or s or whatever units you prefer your time data to be in. c$ %ubtracting the first value from all the time entries so that your time record begins at #. (orrect your counts for bac&ground+ and+ if necessary+ for undercounting. 2anipulate your data in whatever way you decided was necessary to get a straight line. Ietermine the error bars that go with each count value in your plot. )ach point will have a different uncertainty because of the nature of counting statistics. Plot your presumed straight-line data in JA3)IIA.RAPK+ ma&e a linear fit+ and determine its slope. <rom these results you should be able to determine the decay constant + the decay time+ and the half-life 0'H" !with uncertainties propagated from the uncertainty on your slope$. ?hat do these numbers represent/ Kow much do you expect your count rate to fall in one decay time+ / In time 0'H"/ In time "0'H"/ In time */ Io your data agree with these e-pectations/ <ind the accepted value for the half-life of this value quantitatively with your result.
'*F

Ba on the chart of the nuclides. (ompare

(onclusions:
Iraw the usual conclusions !analysis of error and uncertainty+ assessment of the measurements made+ evaluation of your prediction+ things learned+ etc.$ ?hat ideas about nuclear radiation processes do these measurements confirm or refute/