Skittles Lab Report

Aim:
To model the half-lives of radioactive atoms using Skittles
Hypothesis:
If we shake 184 skittles, and when they are poured out the ones with the printed “s” facing upwards decay, then it will take 7 half-lives for all “atoms” or skittles to decay. This is because if approximately half decay, then based on calculations, it will take 7 times (give or take) for the number of atoms to fall below 1, hence all atoms having decayed.
Materials:
1x family share packet of Skittles
1x Resealable / Zip-lock bag
Graph paper
Method:
1. Count the number of skittles in your bag and record this number
2. Place the skittles into your resalable bag, and remove all air from inside.
3. Ensure the bag is sealed, and shake for 10 seconds.
4. Gently pour the

In half-lives 1, 5, 6, and 7, a larger number (normally about double) remained un-decayed. This may have been due to the skittles not being shaken correctly, human error or just pure luck and probability.

In this experiment the half life was approximately 11 seconds. In theory, the half-life would be 10 seconds, but when the data is examined, half the atoms continually decayed on an average of 11 seconds. The initial half-life occurred (when half the atoms decayed) at 13 seconds, then the following half-lives occurred every 10 or 11 seconds. If the average is found, we can conclude that a half-life of 11 seconds (approximately) occurred.
3.
At the end of the second half life, the fraction of un-decayed atoms was: 51/184. This means that 27.27% of the atoms had not decayed, and 72.73% had decayed. At this point theory says that 75% of the atoms should have decayed, and our results concur with

The curve started of steeply during the first half-life due to the large number of atoms decaying. The curve gradually lessened its pitch, (became shallower) as the number of atoms that were decaying lessened. Towards the end of the curve, the line remained on almost the same level, due to the number of atoms decaying becoming increasingly similar.
If the data line is examined, the line has many “spikes” in it towards the end of the graph, due to irregular numbers of atoms decaying. The initial curve is similar, but steeper, and it does not curve as early.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, it took 10 half-lives for all the atoms to decay. This does not concur with the hypothesis, which stated that it would take 7 half lives for all the atoms to decay.
This practical has assisted me with developing a greater understanding about haw half-lives function, and that only an approximated half of the atoms decay per half-life, not exactly half. In addition to this, I also learnt that a particle never fully decays. Even when there is only one particle left, it will divide in half. And half again. And half again. If we were cutting up a piece of cake, even when there was only a crumb left to cut up, we could still cut the crumb up. The particle can never fully decay, because there will always be a sliver of something to