Radioactive Branching Using Dice
Author(s)
Sarmistha Sahu*
Affiliation(s)
Department of Physics, Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women, Bangalore (INDIA).
Department of Physics, Maharani Lakshmi Ammanni College for Women, Bangalore (INDIA).
ABSTRACT
Dice rolling (Emeric,1997) is a useful pedagogical tool (Arthur & Ian,2012; Todd, Clifton, Ingrid, Zdravko,2006)) to introduce students to the concepts and essential features of radioactivity. It can be extended to explain radioactive branching. In the process, the students learn about half life, decay constant and activity of a radioactive substance. Terms like stochastic processes, probability of decay, statistical fluctuations, and mutually exclusive processes; becomes clear in this process.
Dice rolling (Emeric,1997) is a useful pedagogical tool (Arthur & Ian,2012; Todd, Clifton, Ingrid, Zdravko,2006)) to introduce students to the concepts and essential features of radioactivity. It can be extended to explain radioactive branching. In the process, the students learn about half life, decay constant and activity of a radioactive substance. Terms like stochastic processes, probability of decay, statistical fluctuations, and mutually exclusive processes; becomes clear in this process.
Cite this paper
Sahu, S. (2012). Radioactive Branching Using Dice. Creative Education, 3, 671-673. doi: 10.4236/ce.2012.35099.
Sahu, S. (2012). Radioactive Branching Using Dice. Creative Education, 3, 671-673. doi: 10.4236/ce.2012.35099.
References
[1] Arthur, M., & Ian, H. (2012). The “radioactive dice” experiment: Why is the “half-life” slightly wrong? Physics Education, 47, 197. doi:10.1088/0031-9120/47/2/197 [2] Emeric, S. (1997). Dice shaking as an analogy for radioactive decay and first order kinematics. Journal of Chemical Education, 74, 505. doi:10.1021/ed074p505 [3] Sahu, S. (2011). Frontline, Physics, Education, 46, 255-256. [4] Sahu, S. (2011). Lab Experiments, 39, 3. [5] Tayal, D. C. (1988). Nuclear physics. Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House. [6] Neller, T. W., Presser, C. G. M., Russell, I., Markov, Z. (2006). Pedagogical possibilities for the dice game pig. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 21, 149-161.
[1] Arthur, M., & Ian, H. (2012). The “radioactive dice” experiment: Why is the “half-life” slightly wrong? Physics Education, 47, 197. doi:10.1088/0031-9120/47/2/197 [2] Emeric, S. (1997). Dice shaking as an analogy for radioactive decay and first order kinematics. Journal of Chemical Education, 74, 505. doi:10.1021/ed074p505 [3] Sahu, S. (2011). Frontline, Physics, Education, 46, 255-256. [4] Sahu, S. (2011). Lab Experiments, 39, 3. [5] Tayal, D. C. (1988). Nuclear physics. Bombay: Himalaya Publishing House. [6] Neller, T. W., Presser, C. G. M., Russell, I., Markov, Z. (2006). Pedagogical possibilities for the dice game pig. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 21, 149-161.