Radon Gas Case Study Essay

OBJECTIVEBuild a guileless ionization sleeping accommodation that is capable of detecting f directly low levels of radiationBACKGROUND OF THE studyRadon is a tin brush rancidcer-causing gas. It comes from the natural breakdown of uranium in soil, pit and body of water and gets into the air you pass off. These radioactive materials decay into lighter elements, emitting fecesty sub-atomic particles in the process, and one of those lighter elements is Radon. Since atomic number 86 is a shocking gas, it is chemically indolent and doesnt stay bound in the solid the way its p arent did. It diffuses right by solids and ends up floating freely in the air. Being a noble gas, radon is fairly harmless, itself. You breathe in some radon with every breath but then you breathe it right back out, since it isnt chemically active or electrically charged. But radon has a short half life of only intimately four days, meaning that about half of it allow for decay at bottom four days, pro ducing new, even lighter radioactive isotopes of other elements like polonium, lead, and bismuth.Those isotopes maintenance decaying, until a stable isotope of lead is reached. These radon daughters are not noble gasses like radon, they are ordinarily ionized when they are produced, and they entrust quickly bank to anything nearby, like healthy lung tissue. They typically start an even shorter half-life than radon and quickly decay inside the lung, kicking out energetic alpha and beta particles that can beget tissue damage and potentially trigger lung cancer. This unfortunate chain of events is due to the decay chain including a noble gas. Radon gas is considered to be the second leading cause of lung cancer. It can get into any type of retraceing homes, offices, and schools and result in a high indoor radon level.But, we are most apparent to get your greatest exposure at home, where we spend most of our time. It typically moves up through and through the ground to the ai r above and into your home through cracks and other holes in the foundation. Any home traps radon inside, where it can build up. Any home whitethorn have a radon problem. This room new and old homes, well-sealed and drafty homes, and homes with or without basements. These are examples where you can call up the noble gas1. Cracks in solid floors2. Construction Joints3. Cracks in walls4. Gaps in suspended floors5. Water supplyIt breaks down into solid radioactive elements called radon progeny. Radon progeny can attach to dust and other particles and can be breathed into the lungs. As radon and radon progeny in the air break down, they give off alpha particles, a influence of high-energy radiation that can damage our health. Radon daughters will stick to just about anything they encounter, so they are easily collected by drawing air through a dusting cloth with an ordinary fan. after collecting the daughters for about an hour or two, the radiation universe emitted from the cloth d ue to the further decay of the collected radioactive isotopes can be measured with a simple ionization chamber made from an fire coffee can, a single Darlington transistor, and a digital voltmeter.The deceivingly simple ion chamber is quite sensitive and can detect radon daughters in buildings with radon concentrations below the action level recommended by health authorities. A simple ionization chamber is nothing more than a coat can with a wire inside. When a radioactive particle passes through the air in the chamber, many of the molecules of air are ionized, having electrons knocked loose from the outermost atomic shells. Applying a positive voltage on the outer can relative to the internal wire, causes these ions to be attracted to the wire and the free electrons to be attracted to the inside(prenominal) wall of the can. This movement of charge is a tiny current that may be amplified to detect the rate at which ions are being generated, and thereby the rate that radioactiv e particles are passing through the can. The chamber will be detecting mostly betaparticles.BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY strapper color is an essential element for all known living organisms, including humans. You need a small amount of papal bull in your diet to stay healthy. On average, most people will eat and drink about 1,000 micrograms ( g) of pig per daydrinking water normally contributes approximately 150 g per day. Levels of strapper found naturally in ground water and come forward water are typically very lowabout 4 g of copper in one liter (L) of water or lesshowever, drinking water may contain higher levels of copper, usually as a result of flowing through copper pipes. spunky levels of copper can occur if water that is sulphurous comes in affect with copper plumbing and copper-containing fixtures. Many factors can make water blistering for copper pipes dissolved salts and minerals, bacteria, and suspended solids, such as sand, sediment, and rust. The level of copper in drinking water increases with the corrosivity of the water and the length of time it be in contact with the plumbing.If the copper level gets too high, the water may have a metallic taste and you might notice grungy or blue-green stains around sinks and plumbing fixtures. It will be highest in the morning because the water will have been exposed to the pipes overnight. If you are being served by a public water system, the owner of the utility will have results ofcopper sampling, which is a process that has been done in part of the water-distribution system. In this chemistry science fair project, you will investigate another(prenominal) possible factor in making water corrosive for copper the pH of the water. You will test the theory that acidic water is more corrosive for copper pipes than non-acidic water.In the procedure, boggy copper pennies will be placed in either plain water or in water with acetic acid (vinegar). You may know that newly minted pennies have bright, s hinny copper but over time the copper and air react and the pennies build up a layer of copper oxide on them. The copper oxide is the dull, dark coloration on well- apply pennies. In this experiment, if the water is corrosive enough to strip off the copper oxide then you will go steady the progress of the reaction by watching the pennies go from dull and dingy to bright and shiny. The pennies get shiny because the copper oxide is being stripped off by a reaction, which results in increasing levels of copper in the liquid. Unfortunately, water that is corrosive slowly eats away at the pure copper, as well as at the copper oxide.For houses with corrosive water systems, this can result in elevated levels of copper in the drinking water. On a purely practical level, houses with corrosive water systems might harness that their copper pipes are springing leaks, and that the whole house needs to be re-piped with waxy pipes To measure the amount of copper present in the terminations tha t are used to clean the pennies, you will perform a color-based chemical test. The chemicals for the test are contained in a small tablet, which is dissolved in water. When the tablet is dissolved, the solution turns reddish-orange. If no copper (or very small amounts of copper) is present, the solution remains reddish-orange. If copper is present, the solution will turn blue.