In my archaeometry class, I am getting ready to do several lectures on radiocarbon and potassium-argon dating. This applet isn't bad for a starter:
But it seems like there ought to be some better animations/simulations/applets out there.
What are your favorite teaching aids for radioactivity?
But it seems like there ought to be some better animations/simulations/applets out there.
What are your favorite teaching aids for radioactivity?
The last time I taught students about the concept of half-life they actually measured it during the lab session. We had irradiated samples of indium-116, which has a half-life of 54 minutes. The students measured the number of counts on a Geiger counter every minute for 30 minutes, and that was enough to plot, notice the decrease over time, and calculate the approximate half-life. Of course, this is hard when you don't have access to a freshly irradiated short-lived radioisotope.
ReplyDeleteMaarten Blaauw has some nice animations:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.chrono.qub.ac.uk/blaauw/wiggles/