AN ACCURATE AND EFFICIENT ANALOGY OF DICE-SHAKING AND RADIOACTIVE DECAY

Abstract

In teaching radioactive decay labs, dice are often used as metaphors for radioactive nuclei because the equipment is cheaper and safer than real radioactive elements. However, a common problem in experiments is that the dice decay constant deviates from the theoretical value. This problem may be caused by an incorrect theory. In this research, we study the decreasing numbers of dice after rolling by using the actual dice roll method and computer modeling method to calculate the decay constants compared with some theoretical values presented by IPST and Murray & Hart to find the correct theoretical value. In addition, we also consider the appropriate number of initial dice for being used in teaching. It is found that the initial numbers of 80 dice is sufficient to obtain a reasonable trend of decreasing dice, theoretically correct decay constant presented by Murray & Hart, and short time for doing the experiments. Therefore, this study provides a correct understanding of the decrease in the number of dice and proposes an efficient number of dice for teaching the experiments of an analogy of dice-shaking and radioactive decay.