COMPARISON OF THE BEHAVIOR OF RADIOACTIVE DECAY THROUGH POLYHEDRONS THROWINGS

Abstract

Modern physics is part of the High School physics curriculum, but it is rarely covered. Thus, subjects such as radioactivity and radioactive decay are rarely worked in the classroom, and more difficult with associated practice, since radioactive materials are harmful and follow specific legislation for their use. In order to try to overcome this deficiency and provide a practice, a simulation of the radioactive decay curves was performed using sets of polyhedra (physical or virtual), where each set is formed with polyhedra with a certain number of faces. When an atom emits some type of radiation, it is said that the chemical element has undergone radioactive decay and this process, in addition to being a transmutation of matter, is a spontaneous and completely random process. The average time in which half of the atoms in a given sample decay, forming another chemical element, known as the half-life time, is specific to each radioactive chemical element and polyhedra with different numbers of faces can be used to simulate this condition. The probability of a specific atom decaying after a certain period of time can be simulated by comparing the polyhedrons throwings by subtracting the number of polyhedra as a function of one of the chosen faces.