Principle
The attenuation of an electron particle stream passing through a
material layer depends both on the thickness of the layer and on
the mass coverage, resp. the "mass per unit area". It will be shown
that the particle flux consisting of electrons of a particular
energy distribution decreases with the "mass per unit area". As
electron source, a radioactive sample of 90Sr is used.
Tasks
- The beta-counting rates are measured as a function of the
absorber thickness using different absorbing materials such as
aluminium (AL), glass (GL), hard paper (HP) and typing paper
(TP).
- The attenuation coefficients are evaluated for the four
absorbing materials and plotted as a function of the density.
What you can learn about
- Density
- Counter tube
- Radioactive decay
- Attenuation coefficient
- Mass coverage