Half-Life Lab

The half-life of an element is the time it takes for half of the sample to decay into a stable form. In the lab we did today in class, we used tiny cut out squares of paper to demonstrate the original mass of the element. We mixed up the pieces and separated the squares depending on the side that they landed, which mimicked the decayed part of the element. 

Here is a link that helps explain what to do when solving half life problems: http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Half-Life

Here are some example problems to get some practice solving different problems: http://www.chemteam.info/Radioactivity/Radioactivity-Half-Life-probs1-10.html

This image is from the lab today and shows all of the squares counted