Honors Radioactive Decay Activity

Instructions: For this activity, you will model the radioactive decay that occurs in living and
nonliving things. Your model will illustrate the concepts such as beta decay and half-life.
Complete each section of the activity before submitting it. Review the grading rubric before you
begin.

Purpose
The purpose of this activity is to model the concept of half-life using a sample to represent
radioactive atoms. Understanding how half-life works will help you understand how forensic
chemists can use carbon-14 dating to determine the age of artifacts (and ancient mummies).

Materials
 200 M&M® candies, pennies, or other small candies/items with two distinct sides
 shoebox or another small box with a lid

Procedure
1. Place 200 candies in the shoebox, lettered sides up. The candies will stand for atoms of a
carbon-14.
2. Cover the box and shake it vigorously for three seconds. This represents one interval of
time.
3. Remove the lid and take out any candies (atoms) that are now showing lettered sides
down. These candies represent the carbon-14 atoms that decayed during the time interval.
Count and record in a data table the number of decayed atoms and the number of
remaining, not decayed, atoms.
4. Continue repeating steps 2 and 3 until all atoms have decayed or you have reached 30
seconds on the data table.
5. Repeat the entire experiment (steps 1–4) a second time and record all data.
Data
Complete a data table, like the one below, for each trial.

Trial 1 Trial 2

Time Radioactive Atoms Time Radioactive Atoms

(seconds) Atoms Decayed (seconds) Atoms Decayed
Remaining Remaining
(Not Decayed) (Not Decayed)

0 200 0 0 200 0

3     3    

6     6    

9     9    

12     12    

15     15    

18     18    

21     21    

24     24    

27     27    

30     30    
Calculations
1. Determine the average number of atoms remaining (not decayed) at each three-second
time interval by adding the results from the two trials and dividing by two.
2. Complete the table that compares time to the average number of atoms remaining at each
time interval.
3. Create a line graph of your data showing the average atoms remaining versus time. (See
example graph.)

Average Atoms Remaining

Time Radioactive Atoms Remaining (Not

(seconds) Decayed)

0 200

3  

6  

9  

12  

15  

18  

21  

24  

27  

30  

Example Graph
(You may edit this graph and replace it with your own data. To do this, first select the graph,
and then select Chart Filters icon. From there select, Select Data Source and enter in your
data.)

Average Atoms Remaining

250

200
Atoms Remaining

150

100

50

0
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30
Time in Seconds

Average atoms remaining

Conclusion
Answer the following questions in complete sentences, and justify your responses.

1. After how many time intervals (shakes) did one-half of your atoms (candies) decay?

2. What is the half-life of your substance?

3. If the half-life model decayed perfectly, how many atoms would be remaining (not
decayed) after 12 seconds?

4. If you increased the initial number of atoms (candies) to 300, would the overall shape of
the graph be altered? Explain your answer.
5. Go back to your data table and for each three-second interval, divide the number of
candies decayed by the number previously remaining and multiply by 100. Show your
work.

6. The above percentage calculation will help you compare the decay modeled in this
experiment to the half-life decay of a radioactive element. Did this activity perfectly
model the concept of half-life? If not, was it close?

7. Compare how well this activity modeled the half-life of a radioactive element. Did the
activity model half-life better over the first 12 seconds (four decays) or during the last 12
seconds of the experiment? If you see any difference in the effectiveness of this half-life
model over time, what do you think is the reason for it?