Blessed is the man who, The rate of decay is usually measured with a Geiger counter.

The Geiger
having nothing to say, counter consists of a detecting tube and associated electronics. The tube is filled with a
abstains from giving us low pressure gas such as argon. A wire (insulated from the outside of the tube) runs
wordy evidence of the fact. down the middle. High voltage is applied across the wire and the outside of the tube.
--George Eliot The tube has a "window" which is transparent to small particles and short wavelengths
of electromagnetic radiation (i.e., alpha and beta particles, and gamma rays).
The Half-Life of an Isotope
When a particle or photon enters the tube it causes ionization of the gas, which
Radioactive isotopes undergo half-life disintegrations. This means that half of allows electric current to arc across from the central wire to the outside of the tube. This
the original sample will disintegrate in a certain amount of time (essentially independent temporary "short circuit" is detected by the attached electronics and is sometimes
of temperature and other usual rate-determining factors) called the half-life. During the evidenced by an audible click or recorded by a digital counter.
elapse of another half-life period of the same duration, half of the sample left from the
first disintegration will also disintegrate. The process continues until one atom remains. Such devices are expensive and it would be impractical to provide each student
Decay of the last atom completes the transmutation of one element into another. with one. There is also the hazard of working with radioactive materials to be
considered. Therefore, you will perform this experiment with a calculator-simulated
Half-lives vary widely. Certain Uranium isotopes have half-lives on the order Geiger counter which you can download from the Science Department Network or from
of 109 years. Other isotopes, particularly those which are man-made, may have half- the class website [you will need your own GraphLink cable to download the program at
lives of micro-seconds. home and transfer it to your calculator].

Whatever the length of the half-life, decay follows a pattern which is Determining the activity of a sample involves measuring the number of
logarithmic, best described by the equation: disintegrations ("counts") in a given amount of time. But because there is a low level of
radiation in the environment around us all the time (background radiation) an initial
ln NNo = kt measurement must be made before the sample is introduced to determine what part of
the total count is from the sample and what part is from the environment. The average
background count is subtracted from each count for the sample.
Here, No is the starting sample (or, as in this experiment, the reference count taken after
60 seconds). N is the amount of sample remaining at time t (or the number of counts in One other interesting avenue to pursue hearkens back to one of Rutherford's
succeeding minutes). The rate constant for the decay, k, is a measure of the tendency of early experiments in which he characterized the three types of natural radioactivity. If
the atoms to decay spontaneously. This is different for each isotope. Thus finding k (by the emitted particles are directed through a magnetic field or between charged metal
graphical solution) will allow identification. Rearrangement of the equation above plates, they will be deflected according to charge and mass. It is therefore possible to
yields determine the kind of decay by doing such an experiment. The calculator simulation you
will use includes this option.
ln N = -kt + ln No
y = mx + b Preparing to experiment

which is the equation of a straight line in slope/intercept form. A plot of the natural log Allot about 15 minutes to do this experiment.
of the counts per minute vs. time will thus give a line whose slope is -k. The intercept
is a number we cannot measure since we have no way to obtain an instantaneous count You will have to temporarily delete the CBL programs from your calculator in order to
at t=0. have enough memory to run the simulation (delete: CHEMENU, CHEMTIME,
CHMCALIB, CHMMONIT, CHMTRIGP, MAT2LST, RESET). Once you have the
The rate constant is further related to the half-life, t½ , by a simple expression: GEIGER program in your calculator, run it from the Program menu (press and
highlight the GEIGER program. Press twice).
t½ = 0.693
k
To begin the simulation you need to enter the date of your birthday (e.g., 23).
This provides the “seed” for the random number generator which will select your The deflection test screen looks like this:
sample.

The opening menu provides the following choices:

A high voltage power supply is attached to metal plates within the chamber. The
sample container (block at left hand of chamber) is made of lead and has a hole drilled
into it to hold the sample. Any particles given off as the sample decays are directed
Begin a background count. This gives a correction factor to subtract for natural toward the right side of the chamber across a phosphorescent screen which glows when
radiation which will contribute to the overall count for your sample. charged particles strike it (like the cathode-ray tube you may have seen in class). When
the metal plates are charged by the power supply [press to charge the plates], the
The counter screen looks like this: stream of particles is deflected based on its charge and mass. The arbitrary scale at the
right of the chamber is for your reference only.

After you have observed the deflection of the three known samples, check your
unknown (did you write down the sample number yet?????).

The upper display window gives the current accumulated count while the lower window The simulation writes a significant amount of data into the matrices and lists so be sure
gives the time elapsed in min:sec format. The object at the right is the Geiger tube and to exit through the menus so that this information will be cleared from the calculator
sample stand. The sample goes in the lower portion. memory. When you are satisfied that you have all the data you need you might as well
delete the program and reload the CBL programs to have them ready for Unit 12.
If you need to repeat the experiment for some reason, the background count should be ____________________________________________________________
the same IF you enter the same birth date.

The counter automatically stops after 5 minutes. Record the final count and press
to return to the main menu. Counting your unknown sample is much the same
but you MUST pay attention to the count because you need to keep track of the
accumulated count at each minute so that you can later determine how many counts
were recorded for each minute. Be sure to record the number of counts at each
minute interval. Be sure to record your sample number. If you miss a count and
need to re-start, you may do so at any time by pressing .

When the sample count is complete, press to return to the main menu. You are
ready to begin the particle deflection tests.

The deflection menu looks like this:

Three known samples are included so that you can compare your own sample in order
to determine how it is decaying. Check each known sample by pressing the appropriate
menu number.
The following isotopes are possible in this experiment. Values for k, in units of s-1 are Analysis
also given. These values have been calculated from half-lives found in the CRC
handbook Table of the Isotopes. 1. Calculate the average background count per minute.

Isotope k, s-1 Decay 2. Use your data to calculate the number of counts or disintegrations in each minute
Ca-49 0.0013 β- [note that the counter gives a running count].
K-38 0.0015 β+
Al-29 0.0018 β- 3. Correct your counts/min from your sample for the background count.
Ti-51 0.0020 β-
4. Calculate the natural log (ln) of each count and plot a graph of these values vs. the
Rh-95 0.0023 β+
time in seconds. Determine the slope of the best straight line among the points and use
S-37 0.0023 β-
it to calculate k.
Fr-221 0.0024 α
Rb-77 0.0030 β+ 5. Identify your unknown from the table provided. Calculate the half-life in seconds. It
V-52 0.0031 β- may be that your isotope has a rate constant value that is very close to another one. In
Cf-242 0.0033 α such cases it is sometimes possible to distinguish between two based on different decay
Po-218 0.0037 α modes (e.g., alpha vs. beta). If you are left with two possibilities, both of which decay in
Lr-260 0.0039 α the same way, simply state that it is one of the two but you don’t have enough data to
Ra-213 0.0043 α distinguish between them.
Ga-64 0.0044 β+
P-30 0.0046 β+ 6. Based on the type of decay you detected for your sample in the deflection test, write a
Re-180 0.0048 β+ balanced decay reaction for your isotope.
Al-28 0.0051 β-
Bi-211 0.0054 α
Sr-79 0.0055 β+
Po-198 0.0066 α
V-53 0.0072 β-