The Two State Nuclear Decay model simulates the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei into other nuclei.  In this model, the resultant nuclei are stable and there are no intermediate decay states.  Although the decay of a radioactive nucleus (radionuclide) is spontaneous and the time of its decay cannot be predicted, the probability of its decay k is constant and is usually known.  The model displays a radioactive sample with N nuclides.  Radioactive nuclides are color-coded red and decayed nuclides are color-coded blue. Users can set the number of nuclides N, the decay constant k, and the time interval between measurements before the simulation is run. The simulation counts the number of decay events and stops when there are no radionuclides remaining.

The Two State Nuclear Decay model was developed using the Easy Java Simulations (Ejs) modeling tool.  It is distributed as a ready-to-run (compiled) Java archive.  Double clicking the ejs_nuclear_TwoStateNuclearDecay.jar file will run the program if Java is installed.

Please note that this resource requires at least version 1.5 of Java.