Radioactive Half Life

Purpose (research question):

To check whether radioactivity of a sample of Ba-137 decreases exponentially over time.
In particular to measure the radioactive half life of Ba-137 (table value is 2.6 minutes).
Background and theory:
1) Radioactivity both , and originates from inside the nucleus, not from the
outer atom.
2) Radioactivity is a random process but on average, a fixed percentage of a radio
active sample decays every second. For example, the radioactive radon isotope
Rn-220 decays by 1.3 % every second. This means that if you start out with 1000
radon-220 atoms, after 1 second there will be 987 left (the others will not have
disappeared but have decayed to some other element), and after another second
there will be only 974 left (1.3 % less than 987).
3) From 2) follows that the number of
radioactive nuclei left in the sample is an
exponentially decreasing function of
time. Also, the activity (as measured by a
GM-tube) will be exponentially
decreasing:

AA0ekt ,
where k = ln(2) / T and T is the half life.
This should be well known from maths.
4) Since the underlying process is random, there will be fluctuations in an
actual (t,A)-graph, according to the square root rule: the absolute uncertainty
on a radioactive count A is

=A.

5) We detect the radiation with a Geigercounter, inside which i) the radiation

ionizes gas-molecules which ii) are then
accelerated in an electric field and hence
Geiger tube and counter
( Wikipedia
)

iii) ionize further gas-molecules, so that eventually iv) there will be an

avalanche of
electrons speeding towards the electrode,
hence v) creating an electric pulse (a beep)
in the counter, which is vi) recorded by a
counter or directly in the computer program.

The radioactive source for this investigation:

We are using a so-called Barium-generator to provide the radioactive sample. In a
container we have a sample of Cs-137 (of half life about 30 years) which is constantly decaying to Ba-137 (excited), which then in turn -decays to Ba-137 (stable).

In the container there is thus a dynamic equilibrium between the two elements Cs-137
and Ba-137.
We chemically extract the Ba-137 by flushing the sample with a HCl-solution.
Hence we are able to look at only Ba-137 in the experiment. Clever!
Investigation:
1) Hook up the Geiger tube to LoggerPro and set the sample rate to be once per 5
seconds.
2) Mount the tube in a stand and measure the background radiation for some time.

Graph 1 Background radiation

3) When we determined the background radiation, we got a sample of the radioactive

substance Ba-137
from the teacher and immediately started logging the activity.
4) After about 10 minutes, we got a beautiful exponentially decreasing graph.

Graph 2 Raw graph of radiation of a function

as time ln(2)
5)

Process the data by having LoggerPro fit with the

y = A*exp(
function

*t)+B

Graph 3 Graph with best-fit line

The fit values for the parameters (remember units and include the uncertainties
given by LoggerPro!): i) A = (191.3 +/- 3.2) counts
ii) B = (7.5 +/- 3.4) counts
iii) C = (150.7 +/- 8.1) seconds
6) Parameter B ought to be the constant background radiation level, because all the
radiation has decayed after 10 min. The value of B is between 4.1 and 10.9 counts,
and the actual value we got in 2) is about 6.0 counts. 6.0 counts is in that range.
7) Half life:
*

the observed half life: T = (150.7 +/- 8.1) s

Compare the observed value to the expected value of 2.6 minutes (i.e. calculate
the %-deviation).

Conclusion:

According to Graph 3, the radioactivity of a sample of Ba-137 DOES decrease

exponentially over time. The radioactive half live of Ba-137 we got is (150.7 +/- 8.1) s.
The table value of that should be 2.6 min, which is 156 s. 156 s is in the interval
between 142.6 s and 158.8 s.