Re: Practical demonstration of a half-life

[Joel Baumbaugh <baumbaug@nosc.mil>]

	Mark,

	Once upon a time - in a far, far away land,   I was speaking to a group of
2nd graders and ended up demonstrating the notion of half-life using a
"prop" which was already in their classroom.  I explained how P-32 had a
half life of 14 days and how it decayed to Sulfur, etc. etc....  I then
used an egg timer (the sand type) and
explained/suggested/showed/demonstrated that the phosphorus (sand) was
changing to sulfur (sand) as it (decayed and) passed through the narrow
orifice...  Same volume, same atoms, just different over time.  The egg
timer was even two different colors (top green, bottom red [until you
turned it over]). Hey - pretty crude, but I saw the little "light-bulbs" go
off in their heads... Of course, they wanted to know if we could change the
sulfur back to phosphorus which lead to a (very simplified) discussion
about other things nuclear.

	Hope this helps,

	Joel Baumbaugh (baumbaug@nosc.mil)
	SSC-SD


At 08:38 AM 4/28/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>I am looking for a good way to demonstrate the notion of a
>half-life to a group of staff who are not highly educated, and, in
>many cases, are from a non-English speaking background.
>
>All of the demonstrations I have previously used, or seen used,
>have implied a reduction in volume as well as activity (even some
>very good graphics). 
>
>With the usual budget constraints (i.e. no money), I need to find a
>good inexpensive way to illustrate reduction in activity, but not
>volume, with time.  Ideally, this demonstration would be very
>physical, capable of being "run" by an untrained volunteer under
>instruction.
>
>Your suggestions/experiences will be welcome.  Please reply to me
>at the email address below, unless you believe your response will
>be of interest to the whole of Radsafe.  I'll summarise and post the
>useful or informative responses.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Mark Hanlon,
>Radiation Safety Officer,
>The New Children's Hospital,
>P.O. Box 3515,
>PARRAMATTA, NSW, 2124
>Australia
>
>Phone  61 2 9845 3324        Fax  61 2 9845 0831
>
>email   markh@nch.edu.au
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