You can simulate radioactive decay by tossing pennies. Assemble a collection of as many pennies (or other coins) as you can; around 100 would be ideal. The pennies serve as models of radioactive nuclei. Record the original number of pennies, then toss them. Let each penny that comes up "tails" represent a nucleus that has decayed. Remove all the tails and count them. Then toss the remaining pennies. An improved version is to toss a large number of dice instead of coins: each die that comes up a "one" represents a nucleus that has decayed. Suppose that 240 dice are tossed.
(a) What is the average number of dice you expect to decay on one toss?
dice
(b) What is the average number of dice you expect to remain undecayed after three tosses?
dice
(c) What is the average number of dice you expect to remain undecayed after four tosses?
dice
(d) What is the half-life in numbers of tosses?
tosses