Name Kesheen Curtis Date 6/19/2022Activity.Radioactive Decay: A Sweet Simulation of Half-LifePurposeTo demonstrate that the rates of decay of unstable nuclei can be measured, that the exact time that a certain nucleus willdecay cannot be predicted, and that it takes a very large number of nuclei to find the rate of decay.___________________________________________________________________________________BackgroundRadioactivity is the spontaneous decay of a nucleus to form another nucleus and a nuclear particle.Some nuclides areradioactive because the ratio of the number from a minimum of 1:1 to a maximum of about 1.6 :1.All nuclides with morethan 83 protons are radioactive meaning that all isotopes of the elements beyond bismuth are radioactive.These nucleiwill spontaneously decay no matter how many neutrons are present.In a collection of radioactive nuclei, the nuclei decay by splitting off nuclear particles and forming new nuclei.A sample ofradioactive material will continue to decay over time until all the nuclei have decayed.For some nuclides, this will happenwithin seconds, minutes, hours or days.For others it may require months, years or thousands of years.Half-life is thetime required for the decay of one-half of a sample of a radioactive substance.For example, if you have a 10.0 g sampleof radioactive material with a half-life of four days, at the end of four days, the amount of the sample has decreased byone-half to 5.0 g.In another four days, the amount remaining is 2.5 g, etc. until all of the radioactive material has decayedor formed a more stable nucleus.For example, uranium-238 will undergo radioactive decay as illustrated below until it forms the stable atomPb-206.1
