The software allows us to extend the investigation. It can carry out a decay experiment 'in the blink of an eye' and it pauses poignantly to allow students to take in the moment when half the material has decayed. Students have the opportunity to choose both the number of atoms in the 'starting mass' and the decay rate. Time and again the program reinforces the concepts of radioactive half life and exponential functions and, perhaps more importantly, repeatedly illustrates the dangerous nature of radioactive material.
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