Purpose:
The concept of radioactive half-life can be a difficult concept to grasp. We might think that out of 128 radioactive atoms, that if 64 decay (transmute) in 1 hour that the other remaining 64 will decay in the next hour. But this is not the case. Imagine 128 pennies being tossed. About 64 will be heads and the remaining will be tails. If we remove the pennies that landed heads and shake the remaining, would they all land on heads? Of course not, only about half would. For each shake the decay rate for the pennies would follow this pattern cloesly: 128 - 64 - 32 - 16 - 8 - 4 - 2 - 1. Using 100 wooden cubes you will experience the concept of half-life and gain a better understanding of this seemingly random process.

Setup:
A bag with 100 wooden cubes with 1 of the 6 sides marked

Procedure:

1. Verify there are 100 cubes
2. Shake the cubes and gently pour on the floor, leveling out any that are stacked on each other
3. Count and remove all cubes that have decayed (Marked face up)
4. Place the undecayed cubes back in the sack and repeat steps 2 - 4 until you have completed 10 days (shakes)
5. Using a piece of graph paper carefully plot the IDEAL DATA below and connect the points with a smooth line.
6. Plot your ACTUAL DATA right on top of the previous graph using a different colored pencil/pen.
7. Draw a straight horizontal line on the 50 atom level (half-way mark). Where both Ideal and Actual cross this line is the half-life! The Actual and Ideal will likely cross at slightly different spots on your graph. If you plotted the IDEAL carefully you should notice that it crosses the 50 atom level between day 3 and day 4 and is closest to day 4. Using the half-life equation from the nuclear tutorial will give an exact half-life of 3.7 days.
8. Graphically approximate your ACTUAL DATA half-life

Analysis:
Finally, update your website with the details of this lab experience including a descriptive summary, all data, and ACTUAL half-life conclusions! Show the instructor a hard copy of this experiment and your web synopsis. (Lab web entry graded according to this rubric).