Segment D: Half-Life
Segment D: Half-Life
We explain half-life qualitatively, mathematically, and graphically. We also look at how we use this principle to find the age of objects.
Science
Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about nuclear changes of matter and related technological applications.
Develop and use mathematical models and representations to calculate the amount of substance present after a given amount of time based on its half-life and relate this to the law of conservation of mass and energy.
-Explore the nature of radioactive substances by understanding their half-life qualitatively and what that tells us about their stability.
-Understand how to graph the decay rate of a radioactive substance and relate this to the half-life of the substance.
-Calculate how much of a substance will remain after a certain number of half-lives have occurred.
-Investigate how half-life is used to find the age of objects.
carbon dating - a method of determining the age of substances that contain organic material by looking that the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-14 they contain.
half-life - the time it takes for half of a radioactive substance to decay.
radioactive decay - the spontaneous emission of charged particles and/or energy from an atom.
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