Half-life Gizmo | Student Exploration: Half-life - GRADED A+

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Student Exploration: Half-life Vocabulary: daughter atom, decay, Geiger counter, half-life, isotope, neutron, radiation, radioactive, radiometric dating Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE... using the Gizmo.) 1. Have you ever made microwave popcorn? If so, what do you hear while the popcorn is in the microwave? I hear popping while I make popcorn. 2. If you turn the microwave on for two minutes, is the rate of popping always the same, or does it change? Explain. The rate of popping is not the same. When you first put the popcorn in there is not a lot of popping, once the popcorn starts to get warm enough it starts to pop a lot, and once all the popcorn seeds have been popped there is not a lot of popping anymore. Gizmo Warm-up Like an unpopped kernel in the microwave, a radioactive atom can change at any time. Radioactive atoms change by emitting radiation in the form of tiny particles and/or energy. This process, called decay, causes the radioactive atom to change into a stable daughter atom. The Half-life Gizmo™ allows you to observe and measure the decay of a radioactive substance. Be sure the sound is turned on and click Play ( ). 1. What do you see and hear? I hear a kind of popping, static kind of sound. Note: The clicking sound you hear comes from a Geiger counter, an instrument that detects the particles and energy emitted by decaying radioactive atoms. 2. What remains at the end of the decay process? Daughte [Show More]

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