Semester 2 BCD Radiation And Half Life

Semester 2 BCD Radiation and half life.

Nora Bessenyei 9c

How does year's affects the radiation of an element ?

Through this experiment I will be looking different factors that can affect half-life. To have a better understanding of the experiment some basic terms needs to be defined.

Such as radiation, Different type of radiation, isotopes and half-life.

Isotopes can be divided into 2 groups. Stable and unstable isotopes. Isotopes that has an atomic number lower than 83 it is stable.

If the atomic number is greater than 83 or if the ratio of neutrons to protons places it outside the zone of stability, it is unstable.

Radioactive isotopes can be any of several type of the same chemical element with different masses. Their nuclei are

The larger the amount of unstable atoms, the larger the probability of a number of these atoms deterioration.

The rate of decay, is the rate at which the radiation is released . Particles will continue emitting radioactive decay until the atom becomes stable again. When they becomes stable, it is no longer the same element. The particles has changed.

It has a new number of neutrons, protons and electrons, forming a completely new element.

The time it takes for half of the atom to decay, is the half time.

Different materials / elements have different half-lives. It's mainly because each substance has a different stability.

The stability is based on the unbalance between the protons and neutrons. Protons that are positively charged and the electrons that are no surprise negatively charged.

The number of protons and electrons the atom has, and the number of electrons it has gained or lost, results in different levels of stability.

A substance which is less stable, will have a shorter half-life than a substance which is more stable. The less stable a substance is, the faster it decays. So in the the result will be a shorter half

I will measure the remaining number of radioactive atoms after every 1000 years. Then calculate the half-life.

To show the data more properly I will plot a graph.

Prediction (What will happen and why)

Because of the fact that this experiment is a simulation, also the elements are unknown / imaginary, Im not able to predict or guess the half-life of none of the elements.

In the other hand my prediction is that every element has a different half-life, because every real and existing element has a different rate of decay due to their different instabilities.

I guess the gap between the different elements half-life, will either be large or small.

Variables (Independent: what you change, Dependent: what you measure, Control)

The independent variables are the things we change. I that experiment the independent variables are the elements such as A, B, C and D.

The dependent variable is the half-life of each element. To measure the half-life of each element we need to measure the number of remaining radioactive atoms. Every time 1000 years