EDEXCEL IGCSE PHYSICS 7-2

Radiation and Half-life

Edexcel IGCSE Physics pages 209 to 215
December 4th 2012

All content applies for Triple & Double Science

 Edexcel IGCSE Specification
Section 7: Radioactivity and particles
b) Radioactivity
understand that ionising radiations can be detected using
a photographic film or a Geiger-Muller detector
recall the sources of background radiation
understand that the activity of a radioactive source
decreases over a period of time and is measured in
becquerels
recall the term ‘half-life’ and understand that it is different
for different radioactive isotopes
use the concept of half-life to carry out simple calculations
on activity
 Radioactivity
The atoms of some
substances are unstable and
they give out radiation from
their nuclei all the time,
whatever is done to them.
These substances are said to
be radioactive.

The first three types of

radiation discovered were
alpha particles, beta
particles and gamma rays. Henri Becquerel discovered
radioactivity in 1896
 Detecting radioactivity
Radioactivity can be
detected using a Geiger
counter.
This clicks each time a
particle of radiation from a
radioactive substance
enters the Geiger tube.

Hans
Geiger
 Background radiation
Background radiation is ionising
radiation from space (cosmic
rays), devices such as X-ray
tubes, and from radioactive
isotopes in the environment (for
example radon gas from rocks in
the ground).

Most of this radiation occurs

naturally but a small amount is
due to nuclear weapon testing
and nuclear power stations.
Background
radiation
pie-chart
Choose appropriate words to fill in the gaps below:
When an unstable nucleus emits an alpha particle its atomic
number falls by _______
two and its mass number by ______.
four

Beta particles are emitted by nuclei with too many ________.

neutrons
In this case the atomic number increases by ______
one while the
________
mass number remains unchanged.
Background radiation is mainly due to natural sources of
_________
ionising radiation such as from ________
radon gas that seeps
out from rocks in the ground.

WORD SELECTION:
four one ionising two neutrons mass radon
 Half-life
The half-life of a radioactive isotope is:

The time it takes for the number of nuclei of

the isotope in a sample to halve.
OR
The time it takes for the count rate from a
sample containing the isotope to fall to half its
initial level.
 Examples of half-life
Uranium 238 = 4500 million years
Uranium 235 = 704 million years
Plutonium 239 = 24 100 years
Carbon 14 = 5600 years
Strontium 90 = 29 years
Hydrogen 3 (Tritium) = 12 years
Cobalt 60 = 5.2 years
Technetium 99m = 6 hours
Radon 224 = 60 seconds
Helium 5 = 1 x 10-20 seconds
 Example – The decay of substance X
Substance X decays Time Nuclei of Nuclei of
to substance Y with a X Y
half-life of 2 hours. 2 pm 6400 0
4 pm 3200 3200
At 2 pm there are
6400 nuclei of 6 pm 1600 4800
substance X.
8 pm 800 5600
10 pm 400 6000
midnight 200 6200

When will the nuclei of substance X fallen to 50? 4 am

Question 1 – The decay of substance P
Substance P decays Time Nuclei of Nuclei of
to substance Q with p Q
a half-life of 15 9 am 1280 0
minutes. At 9 am
there are 1280 nuclei 9:15 640 640
of substance P.
9:30 320 960
Complete the table.
9:45 160 1120
10 am 80 1200
10:15 40 1240

How many nuclei of substance X will be left at 11 am? 5

 Question 2
Substance E has a half-life of 3 hours. If at 8 am it has
a count rate of 600 per second, what will be its count
rate at 2 pm?

at 8 am count rate = 600 per second

2 pm is 6 hours later
this is 2 half-lives later
therefore the count rate will halve twice
that is: 600  300  150

count rate at 2 pm = 150 per second

 Finding half-life from a graph
600
The half-life in this
500 example is about
30 seconds.
number of nuclei

400
A more accurate
300 value can be
200
obtained be
repeating this
100 method for a other
half-life
initial nuclei
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 numbers and then
time (seconds) taking an average.
 Question 1
Estimate the half-life of 900

the substance whose 800

decay graph is shown 700

activity (Bq)
600
opposite.
500

400
The half-life is 300

approximately 20 200
half-life
seconds 100

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

time (seconds)
 Question 2
The count rate of a radioactive substance over a 8 hour
period is shown in the table below.
Draw a graph of count rate against time and use it to
determine the half-life of the substance.
Time 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
(hours)
Counts per 650 493 373 283 214 163 123 93 71
minute

The half-life should be about:

2½ hours
Choose appropriate words or numbers to fill in the gaps below:
half-life
The ________ of a radioactive substance is the time taken for
half of the _______of
nuclei the substance to decay. It is also equal
to the time taken for the _____
count rate of the substance to halve.

The half-life of carbon 14 is about _______

5600 years. If today a
sample of carbon 14 has a count rate of 3400 counts per
minute then in 5600 years time this should have fallen to
1700
______. 850
11200 years later the rate should have fallen to ____.
The number of carbon 14 nuclei would have also decreased
by _____
four times.

WORD & NUMBER SELECTION:

5600 nuclei four half-life 850 1700 count
Activity of Radioactive Materials

The activity (how radioactive it is) of a radioactive

material can be measured with a Geiger-Mϋller (GM) tube.
The GM tube can be used to count how many atoms in the
material experience a radioactive decay each second. Each
of these decays is recorded in the count rate reported by
the GM equipment.

The activity of a radioactive material is the number of

counts per second it produces.
1 count per second (cps) = 1 Becquerel (Bq)
If a radioactive sample is monitored with a
GM tube and a count rate of 1200 counts
per second is obtained, then we say that
the activity of the sample is 1200Bq.
Example: 1
A radioactive chemical has an activity of
10,000Bq. What is the activity of this
chemical after 2 half-lives have passed?
 Exercises

1. A scientist finds a piece of radioactive rock with

an activity of 800Bq. What will be the activity of
this rock after 5 half-lives have passed?

2. The radioactive source used to sterilise medical

equipment being manufactured in a factory has an
activity of 200kBq (200,000Bq). Calculate the
activity of this source 4 half-lives later.
3.The activity of a radioactivity sample is
4000Bq at 2PM. At 2AM its activity becomes
250Bq.

a.How many half lives passed to reach the

activity at 2AM?
b.What is the half life of the sample?

c.When will be the activity 62.5Bq?

 Simulations
Andy Darvill's Radioactivity Pages
Radioactive decay law - half-life graph - NTNU
Radioactive decay and half-life - eChalk
Half-life with graph - Fend
Half-life with graph - 7stones
Half-Life - S-Cool section on half-life and uses of
radioactivity including an on-screen half-life calculation
and an animation showing thickness control.
Hidden Pairs Game on
Half Life - by KT - Microsoft WORD
Understanding Radiation - National Radiological
Protection Board - Useful starting point to get at useful
areas of the site.
BBC Bitesize Revision:
Half-life
 Simulations
Various Radioactive Materials in the Home - 'Whys Guy'
Video Clip (4:30mins)
Andy Darvill's Radioactivity Pages
Understanding Radiation - National Radiological Protection
Board - Useful starting point to get at useful areas of the
site.
Radon Gas - National Radiological Protection Board
BBC Bitesize Revision:
Using radiation - tracers & thickness measurement -
includes applet showing sheet rolling application
Test bite on Radioactive Sources
 Radiation and Half-life
Notes questions from pages 209 to 215

1. Answer the questions on page 215.

2. Verify that you can do all of the items
listed in the end of chapter checklist on
page 215.
Online Simulations