A Simulation of Radioactive Decay Name: Date: Period: introduction: Certain elements are made up of atoms whose nuclei are naturally unstable. The atoms of these elements are said to be radioactive. The nucleus of a radioactive atom will decay into the nucleus of another element by emitting particles of radiation, It is impossible to predict when the nucleus of an individual radioactive atom will decay. However, if a large number of nuclei are present in a sample, it is possible to predict the time period in which half the nuclei in the sample will decay. This time period is called the half-life of the element, Radioactive materials are harmful to living tissues. Their half-lives are difficult to measure without taking safety precautions. To eliminate these problems, you will simulate nuclei by using harmless materials that are easy to observe. In this experiment, you will use pennies to represent the unstable nuclei. Bingo chips will represent the stable daughter element that the radioactive atom became. Your observations will allow you to make a graphical model of how the nuclei of radioactive atoms decay. In this experiment each penny landing as heads represents the nucleus of an atom of a radioactive element. Each bingo chip represents an atom that has undergone nuclear fission and has transmuted to a more stable element. Purpose: You will simulate the decay of a radioactive element into a stable element. You will graph the results of the simulated decay. You will determine half-life of the element. Materials: 200 pennies - 3 cups for storage 200 bingo chips -tray used for the lab Procedure: 1. Gather materials, and count out 200 paper pennies and 200 bingo chips, placing them in two separate cups. 2. Read all the procedures and look at the data table before you actually perform the lab. 3. Count and place your pennies into a cup. Mix the pennies up by covering the cup with your hand and shaking the cup so that the pennies are mixed well. 4. Dump the pennies onto the tray. 5. Count the number of tails. These pennies that flipped over. This number represents the atoms that decayed and have turned into the stable daughter element. 6, Replace tails with bingo chips and put everything back into the cup. There should always be 200 objects in the cup. 7. Mix the cup really well and repeat step 4 and 5. chips. 8. Keep it up till all of the pennies have decayed and all of the pennies in the cup are now bingo