Applied Science AQA/Working with Radioisotopes

Context
... to be familiar with....

Brief - and possible practical problems
The first criteria requires some practical work to determine the half-life of a radioisotope. In many schools, this will involve the use of a "protactinium generator".

But, if you do not have one (and can't afford one... although the physics department might be prepared to share in the investment), then there are some alternatives which the exam board would find acceptable. These include different types of simulation: (And, if you do have the protactinium generator, the simulations are still a good way to learn about the issues.)
 * VPLab - the Virtual Physics Laboratory - this is a suite of simulations, which includes one called "Half Life" which allows you to gather data to find the half-life of Radon gas.
 * Throwing dice. Get a lot of dice.  Throw them.  remove and count the sixes.  repeat until you have none left.  Plotting the number thrown against how many times thrown gives you a good exponential graph, from which half-life can be calculated.

The merit and distinction criteria ask for you to connect the half-life found to real applications.

Advice
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Key Concepts
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Checklist
– relating to criteria skills

Links
to other sections within this book

to good external websites (including AQA website, wikipedia, relevant applications / companies) - also considering links in spec

References / Bibliography
of recommended text books

including mapped refs to existing books

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