M & M's Decay Lab Report

Method In this LAB we measured how long it would take for varying starting amounts of M&M’s to decay. We did this LAB in order to find out if the rate of decay is dependent upon the initial amount of mass present in a radioactive sample. We changed the starting number of M&Ms or the initial “mass” of the M&Ms (our independent variable) in order to be able to come with a clear answer to the question. We also controlled the number of times we would shake the cup in order to not change the way we mixed up the M&Ms. Starting with 40 M&M’s, we would shake our starting number of M&M’s in a foam cup for approximately one second (we would cover the top of the cup with our hand) back and forth 3 times. We would then pour out the M&M’s on a paper towel. After the pour, we would count the number of M&M’s that had flipped over and were not showing the iconic “M” we see on the …show more content…
When we started with 40 M&M’s, it took 6 seconds to completely decay, and when we started with 30 M&M’s, it took 4 seconds to completely decay, but when we started with 20 M&M’s, it took 6 seconds to completely decay. When we started with 10 M&M’s, it took a mere 3 seconds to fully decay.The starting amount of M&Ms of 40 took longer to completely decay than it took for the M&Ms with a starting amount of 30 to completely decay, and the total amount of time it took for the initial mass of 30 M&Ms to completely decay was longer than the time it took for the initial mass of 10 M&Ms to completely decay. From this trend, I concluded that the larger the initial mass, the longer it would take for the initial mass to completely decay (not applicable in real life), even if the rate of decay is faster than the rate of decay of a smaller initial mass of M&Ms. This makes sense; however, when looking at the line with the initial mass of 20 M&Ms, the time it took to fully decay is