Radiation II: Measuring Half-Life

Set up in KPTC 005 or 009 (basement labs) so that you are near the howitzer. There should be 7 individual setups and 1 TA setup.

• General measuring equipment
  • Rulers
  • Calipers

• Radiation sources
  • Gamma emitters: Cs-137 buttons (7)
  • Silver foils
    • One full container for the “fresh” (not-yet activated) foils
    • One empty container for the “used” (activated, but not yet fully-decayed) foils
  • Indium foils
    • One full container for the “fresh” (not-yet activated) foils
    • One empty container for the “used” (activated, but not yet fully-decayed) foils
  • Lead shielding (3 blocks)

• Demo items
  • Survey meter
  • GM tube with a broken window (so you can see inside)

• Extra equipment
  • GM tube in holder (1 or 2 extras)
  • ST370 Radiation Counter (1 or 2 extras)
  • BNC cable (1 or 2 extras)
  • USB cable (1 or 2 extras)

• Detection equipment
  • GM tube in holder (w/ source holder only)
  • ST370 Radiation Counter
  • BNC cable
  • USB cable

Connect equipment at each station and test with the STX software (with high voltage set to +900 V) using a button source.

Set up 7 individual stations and 1 identical “TA station” (which should be marked with a sign so that students don't use that station).

On the TA station, download the following indium half-life backup data:

• indium_backup.zip

In preparation for each session, do the following:

• make sure that at least two ports on the howitzer are available for use (typically P1, P2 and P3 are free and P4 is used by PHYS 211);
• place at least a couple indium foils in one port of the howitzer at least 3 hours prior to the lab session (so that the TA has an activated foil ready to deploy for the indium half-life measurement).