Planned Investigation – Nuclear Decay
I will be carrying out an experiment in where I will be investigating if the number-nuclei and decay chance has any effect when both are changed. The experiment will be carried out on a java applet which has a numerous amount of options in which I can change to affect the outcome of the test.  The options consist of number-nuclei and decay-chance. The test will take place 3 times per setting of number-nuclei and decay change this will make it a fair test, the results will be recorded in a table and graph. I will be using the scale of 250’ for each test on the number nuclei and 10% for each decay-chance.
The aim of the experiment is to see if there is any sort of impact when increasing the number-nuclei and decay-chance.
Dependent variables: The number of ticks and the half life
Independent variables:  The number of radioactive nuclei and the chance of decay-nucleus
The hypothesis of this experiment is that the higher the number-nuclei, the more chance that a nuclear decay will take place. This is the same with decay-chance but only will increase the chance of it occurring more than the number-nuclei itself.
The experiment took place by these simple steps. Firstly, I selected the number-neclei that I was going to use for the test and then I selected the decay-chance. Once I was happy with what I had selected I then clicked on the button ‘setup’ followed by the button ‘go’ this then initialised the experiment and showed a result for them particular settings. After each test that took place I selected the information I wanted to gather from the experiment and added to the table as you can see below.
Number of radioactive nuclei, Nucleus time-step decay chance, Test 1 Half Life, Test 2 Half Life , Test 3 Half Life, Test 1 # Ticks, Test 2 # Ticks, Test 3 # Ticks, Average Half Life, Average Number of Ticks
Number of Radioactive Nuclei	Nucleus Decay Chance
%	Test 1 Half Life
(1dp)	Test 2
Half Life
(1dp)	Test 3
Half
Life
(1dp)	Test 1
Number of Ticks
(1dp)	Test 2 Number of Ticks
(1dp)	Test 3 Number of Ticks
(1dp)	Average Half Life
(1dp)	Average Number of Ticks
(1dp)


      50	10	8	12.4	8.2	44	64	45	9.5	51
	20	3.2	3.8	3.2	18	21	19	3.4	58
	30	2	4	2.2	13	22	12	2.7	15.6
	40	2.2	3.5	2.7	11	17	13	2.8	13.6
	50	1.7	1.5	1.7	10	10	9	1.6	9.6


      250	10	8.3	7.8	7.2	54	59	54	7.7	55.6
	20	3.7	5.6	6.5	28	38	42	5.2	36
	30	2.2	3.7	2.6	20	28	19	2.8	22.3
	40	2.2	2.4	1.8	15	16	13	2.1	14.6
	50	1.4	1.6	2.4	11	11	15	1.8	12.3


      500	10	7.5	6.3	7.8	64	54	65	7.2	61
	20	3.5	6.1	4.1	29	52	36	4.5	39
	30	3.4	2.8	2.4	26	21	20	2.8	22.3
	40	2.1	1.8	2.6	16	14	20	2.1	16.6
	50	1.3	2.3	2	11	18	16	1.8	15


      750	10	7.1	6.7	7.1	68	63	66	6.9	65.6
	20	4.2	4.6	4	38	39	34	4.2	37
	30	2.5	2.7	2.1	24	26	21	2.4	23.6
	40	1.8	2.4	2.4	17	20	20	4.1	19
	50	1.5	1.6	1.5	12	14	12	1.5	12.6


      1000	10	7.2	9	7.7	67	84	72	7.9	74.3
	20	4.6	5.7	3.6	40	50	32	4.6	40.6
	30	2.3	3	2.7	23	31	24	2.6	18
	40	1.7	1.8	1.8	18	16	15	1.7	16.3
	50	1.5	1.7	1.2	14	16	13	1.4	14.3


      1250	10	7.7	7.3	7.1	81	89	67	7.3	79
	20	3.8	4.5	5.2	35	40	44	4.5	39.6
	30	2.5	2.6	2.1	27	24	21	2.4	24
	40	2.2	1.8	1.8	19	16	16	1.9	17
	50	1.5	1.3	1.4	14	13	12	1.4	13


      1500	10	6.7	8	7.3	71	100	69	7.3	80
	20	4.7	4.2	4.3	47	42	41	4.4	43.3
	30	2.5	2.4	2.5	27	24	26	4.9	25.6
	40	2.6	1.8	2	23	19	19	1.9	40.6
	50	1.5	1.6	1.5	15	13	15	1.5	14.3


      1750	10	6.4	7.3	7.7	68	77	81	7.1	75.3
	20	5.6	4.4	4.2	53	42	40	4.7	45
	30	2.1	2.6	2.3	25	25	26	2.3	25.3
	40	2	1.8	2	18	16	18	1.9	17.3
	50	1.4	2.7	1.4	14	23	14	1.8	17


      2000	10	7.9	7.3	8	83	75	84	7.7	80.6
	20	2.1	3.1	2.7	21	32	29	2.6	27.3
	30	2.8	3.1	2.4	26	31	25	2.7	27.3
	40	2.2	2	1.8	20	19	15	2	18
	50	2	1.5	1.7	16	14	14	1.7	14.6


      2250	10	9	9.1	7.5	92	94	79	8.5	88.3
	20	4.7	4.3	4.1	46	42	41	4.3	43
	30	2.6	2.2	3.3	27	22	30	2.7	26.3
	40	1.8	1.8	2.3	18	18	22	1.9	15.3
	50	1.5	1.6	1.6	14	17	15	1.5	15.3


      2500	10	8	8	6.4	82	84	66	7.4	77.3
	20	3.9	3.1	4.5	42	33	49	3.8	41.3
	30	2.3	2.4	2.2	27	27	23	2.3	25.6
	40	1.7	2	2.6	18	19	25	2.6	20.6
	50	1.2	1.4	1.6	13	14	18	1.4	15


      2750	10	7.7	8.6	5.9	80	90	67	7.4	79
	20	3.8	4.3	4.1	37	46	40	4	41
	30	2.5	2.3	3.3	27	25	37	5.2	29.6
	40	2	2.7	2	19	24	20	2.2	21
	50	1.8	2	2.5	17	15	22	2.1	18


      3000	10	7.1	7.3	8.7	74	75	91	7.7	80
	20	3.3	4.5	3.4	36	48	38	3.7	40.6
	30	2.2	2.4	2.6	24	28	28	2.4	26.6
	40	2.1	2.1	2.7	21	20	24	2.3	21.6
	50	1.4	1.5	1.7	15	13	18	1.5	15.3


      3250	10	9.3	8.4	7.4	107	86	76	8.3	89.6
	20	3.4	3.9	4.5	35	43	47	3.9	41.6
	30	3.3	2.2	3.2	33	23	33	2.9	29.6
	40	2.4	2.1	1.7	20	21	17	2.0	19.3
	50	1.8	1.7	1.3	15	17	14	1.6	15.3






Results in graph format
Graph showing all the decay chance averages of Half-Life at 10% and the number of nuclei changing



















Graph showing all the decay chance averages of Half-Life at 20% and the number of nuclei changing























Graph showing all the decay chance averages of Half-Life at 30% and the number of nuclei changing


















Graph showing all the decay chance averages of Half-Life at 40% and the number of nuclei changing

























Graph showing all the decay chance averages of Half-Life at 50% and the number of nuclei changing


















The graphs above show that at the same decay chance the different types of masses averages are in no particular order as they are rising and lowering at different points. In each of the graphs there is a point in where the average of a certain radioactive nuclei is raised really high leaving a pointy shape on the graph.
The results of the experiment taken which can be seen in the above table have a correlation of starting high and dropping down by each 10% decay chance added. This can also be seen the averages part of the graph where it decreases each time.
In conclusion the hypothesis written at the start of the experiment is incorrect as by adding more percentage to the decay chance decreases it average and chance of a decay occurring. This is also the case in all the different masses of decay.