stopwatch (only if microwave timer does not display seconds).microwave (preferably with digital timer displaying seconds).6 mini bags of microwave popcorn, one for each group of students.The half-life of your kernel-popcorn material is the time necessary for half of the given kernels to become popcorns. Heating causes the kernels to begin popping, thereby starting your simulated “radioactive decay clock” and producing popped “daughter” popcorns. Popcorn starts out as unpopped “parent” kernels. You can simulate the dating process with popcorn. Once they determine the age of a volcanic ash layer, geologists can study the materials in that ice core layer for clues about climate conditions at that time. By measuring the ratio of K to Ar in feldspar crystals in volcanic ash, geologists can determine the time of the eruption and, thus, the age of ice in which the ash is found. The half-life of K-Ar is 1.25 billion years. Geologists use a dating technique called K-Ar geochronology to find the age of layers of volcanic ash in ice cores. Ice cores, for example, contain data about Earth’s past climate. The time necessary for half of any given amount of one element (the “parent element”) to decay to become another element (the “daughter element”) is called the element’s “half-life.” They can date rocks by gauging the amount of decay of radioactive elements. How do geologists understand the Earth’s history? In part, they measure the age of rocks and other natural materials by dating techniques.

Half life in 60 seconds