Project 6 The Half-life of Pennies

Name: Christian Lau Lab Partner(s): ____________________ ________________________ ________________________

Introduction: The half-life of a radioactive sample is the time required for half of the original sample of nuclei to decay. This lab activity uses pennies to make a model of the behavior of radioactive nuclides. Prelab ssi!nment: 1) Read through the lab thoroughly. 2) ns!er the follo!ing questions in complete sentences" a. #n this model$ !hat do the pennies that land on %heads& represent'__Those atoms !hich have decayed b. #n this model$ !hat do the pennies that land on %tails& represent' Those atoms that have not yet decayed c. #n this model$ !hat does each flip represent'_(ne half life. "aterials: 1)) pennies *raph paper Pur#ose: To understand ho! to determine !hich function best models half life data.

Procedure: 1. +lip 1)) pennies and separate them according to !hich landed heads and !hich landed tails. Record the number of heads. 2. +lip only the pennies that landed heads$ and then separate the pennies according to !hich landed heads and !hich landed tails. Record the number of heads. Repeat this process until you run out of pennies. $ata%&bser'ations: Record your observations in the table belo!" Trial Number ) + / , 6 0 1 2 )* Number of Pennies (li##ed )** ,+* 6 + ) Lo! (Number of Pennies (li##ed) + ).6-/+ )./ .001 ./*) *

Cleanin! 3# ,lean all materials and !ash your hands thoroughly. nal4sis and Conclusions: ns!er the follo!ing in complete sentences.

1) -ake a graph of the number of pennies you flipped versus the trial number.

2) ,alculate the least square regression line for your data and add it to your scatterplot. .abel the graph !ith the equation and the value of the correlation coefficient /r). 0) -ake a residual graph for you data.

1) -ake a graph of log/number of coins flipped) versus trial number.

2) ,alculate the least square regression line for the above data and add it to your scatterplot. .abel the graph !ith the equation and the value of the correlation coefficient /r). 3) -ake a residual graph for you data 4) 5sing the above information describe the relationship bet!een the number of pennies flipped and the trial number. Refer to al four graphs in your discussion The relationship bet!een the number of pennies flipped and the trial number is e6ponential$ not linear. The .og of 7ecay v. Trial graph indicates that an e6ponential graph is most appropriate to model the half life data because it has a strong linear relationship !ith the data.