Hey guys – this is where 4th Period Chemistry posts results for the Half-Life Simulation lab. You’ll just list your data from the first data table as a comment – just like you comment every week, except this time you are just listing the data from the first data table.

Don’t forget that your results must be posted by Saturday, Jan. 26, by 8:00 A.M. The lab report is due by 8:00 A.M. on Tuesday, Jan. 29 – save as a PDF to both your Google Drive Chemistry Shared folder AND turnitin.com.

Remember, you don’t have to use candies; you may use coins or anything else that has two sides. Please note that you are to post the number of “radioactive” nuclides remaining after each toss.

Just to clarify, everything on the lab sheets will go in your lab report on that you will post on Google Drive: Title, Objective, Procedure, Observations (with data table), Conclusion, and Questions. Don’t forget that your graph needs to be either a full page graph that you do on Excel or a similar program, or you can draw a full page graph on graph paper, scan a very clean, sharp copy and copy it into your lab report. And don’t forget that the analysis questions, calculations, graph, etc., go after your conclusion.

Happy counting – and wait until AFTER the lab to snack!! 🙂

flickr photo by Jared Browarnik

CHEMISTRY: These banana’s been through too many half lives for you?? Great job thinking through the half-life problems! Be sure and practice, practice, practice! They aren’t super difficult, but if you don’t practice, you’ll be as lost as a ball in high weeds!!

What about the Half Life thLab? Now may be the time to get started since next week will be a busy week! Be sure and read the lab ahead of time so you’ll be prepared with the materials you need. I’ll post where you’ll put your results next week.

flickr photo by Per Pettersson

CHEMISTRY: Today we finished talking about the properties of radioactive nuclides, then it was all about arrows and where to put them! 🙂

HOMEWORK UPDATE FOR THURSDAY (Due Friday): Pg. 672 – 674; 11 – 21, 30 – 33, 40, 42

So how are you doing with the nuclear equations? Feeling better about them now that you know what side of the arrow to put the particle on? Also, make sure you memorize the nuclear symbols for alpha particles, beta particles (electrons), positrons, neutrons, and protons – those are just as important as the arrow!

Great job today on our first look at half life! We’ll tackle them full force in class tomorrow. Bring your calculator! 🙂

Photo by Gaelle Marcel

CHEMISTRY: So ordinarily it looks like just any old hunk of rock, but this is a picture of uranium ore under UV light. Pretty cool, huh?!? Here’s our beginning discussion of the unique properties of radioactive nuclides.

HOMEWORK UPDATE FOR THURSDAY (Due Friday): Pg. 672 – 674; 11 – 21, 30 – 33, 40, 42

Have you looked over the half-life simulation lab? It’s one of easiest labs you’ve done, but it does require that you READ the instructions on the syllabus and the website. If there is something you don’t understand, I’ll be glad to help!

CHEMISTRY: Great start to a new chapter! I think you’ll be surprised how much nuclear chemistry is already a part of your everyday life. Also now you know where E=mc2 came from!!

By the way, you ought to read about the life of Marie Cure when you get a chance. Fascinating woman of science with an incredible story!

CHEMISTRY: Isn’t God awesome to give us minds to understand the world around us – even the parts we can’t see!

Here’s our discussion from Monday on isotopes and average atomic mass. How are you doing on writing nuclear symbols? Also make sure you can use them to determine the number of protons, neutrons, electrons, etc., AND be sure you can use the formula to find average atomic mass!

Can you believe atoms are that small – and the nucleus even waaaaaay smaller! The thumbnail is a picture of atoms from the IBM Almaden Research Center. These are iron atoms on top of copper. Being able to move atoms around like this was a giant leap in the field of nanotechnology! (Sorry about that, bad pun! 🙂 )

Image source IBM Almaden Research Center