PHY 171 Lab 10: Radioactive Decay Law

Objective: To understand the ramifications of the probabilistic nature of radioactivity.

Theory:
A nucleus of a radioactive element that emits an -particle must transform into a nucleus of
another element. The nucleus of the so-called parent element loses two neutrons and two
protons. Therefore the nucleon number (A) changes by 4 and the proton number (Z) changes by
2. The nucleus formed by this decay is called the daughter nucleus. We may express such a
nuclear decay by the nuclear reaction equation

A
ZX A4 4
Z2Y + 2He (eqn. 1)
(parent) (daughter) + (-particle)

The radioactive decay law enables us to determine a relation between the half-life of a
radioactive element and the decay constant.

If a sample of a radioactive element initially contains N0 atoms, after an interval of one half-life
the sample will contain N atoms. If the half-life of the element is T from the decay law, we can
write that

= 0 (eqn. 2)

Procedure:
1. Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/alpha-decay, and click on the Run Now!
button. The below window should appear.
2. Click to Custom from the column on the right of the screen and get the below diagram.

3. Adjust the half-life to 1.0 sec. using double-sided green arrow.

4. Pause the experiment, and add atoms to the bucket by clicking Add 10 icon below the bucket at
the bottom; start with 100 radioactive nuclei.

5. Clicking button, get how many un-decayed atoms remain in each time interval of 0.5 s.
 Repeat your measurement 10 times, write your data to the below table and sum up the total.

Time (s) 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Number of un-decayed atom, 100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
N

100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
100 71 50 35 25 18 13
Totals 1000 710 500 350 250 180 130

6. For your totals: plot number of un-decayed atom vs time graph: first on linear graph paper,
then on semi-log graph paper. From your semi-log graph, estimate the half-life for your
radioactive substance. Compare (using percent error) to the set value of 1.0 s.

Half-life = 2.69897, which corresponds to 1s

Log inverse of 2.69897 is 500, which is half of 1000

7. For your totals: calculate values of the natural log of the fraction of survivors [ln (N/N0)]
and write them in the table below. (For t = 0s, the computations are already shown.)

Time (s) 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0

Number of 707 500 354 250 177 125
Un-decayed atom N0=1000
(survivors), N
 Fraction of 0.7 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1
1000/1000 = 1
Survivors (N/N0)
natural log of the -0.4 -0.7 -0.9 -1.2 -1.6 -2.3
fraction of ln(1000/1000)
survivors =0
ln(N/N0)

8. Plot the natural log of the ratio of (surviving atoms)/(initial number of atoms) versus time
(i.e.- make a ln(N/N0) vs time graph). Is it linear? Which of your previous two graphs does this
one compare favorably to? Calculate its slope, the magnitude of which is known as decay
constant, (note that the units of are 1/sec). Taking the natural log of eqn.2, yields

= ln( ) (eqn. 3)
0

9. At t=T1/2, the number of surviving radioactive nuclei is the original sample size: N=N0/2. So
substituting these values into eqn. 3 yields (note ln(1/2) = -ln2)

ln 2
1 = (eqn. 4)
2

Calculate the half-life (T1/2) of parent nucleus and calculate a percent error with the accepted
value of 1.0s.
ln 2
1 =
2 0.69808

1 = 0.9929
2

Percentage error = (1 0.9929)/1*100

= 1%

10. Write a summary paragraph (comments) and answer the following questions.
The half-life from the graph is close to the theoretical value of 1s. The difference has
been brought about by errors due to rounding off of the value during conversion to
natural log of logarithm.

Additional Questions:
1. Based on your estimate of the half-life, how many atoms (out of 1000) would you expect
to survive after 4s? 5s?
The half life is the time it takes acertain amount of a radio active element to decay
to half its mass. For instance if we have 1000 atoms, the time it takes these atoms
to decay by half there original mass is called the half life. With the half life, we are
able to work out the decay constant which then enables us to find the number of
atoms left after, say, 4s or 5s.

With a decay cinstant of -0.69808, after 4s;

1000e^-0.69808*4 = 61 atoms

After 5s;
1000e^-0.69808*5 = 30 atoms

2. How long would you expect it to take for only 10 atoms to remain?

Knowing the decay constant,

10 = 1000e^-0.69808*t

T = 2ln (10)/ 0.69808

T= 6.5s