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File:Halflife-sim.gif

Halflife-sim.gif(100 × 188 pixels, file size: 17 KB, MIME type: image/gif, looped, 80 frames, 8.5 s)

Summary

Description
English: Simulation of many identical atoms undergoing radioactive decay, starting with either four atoms (left) or 400 atoms (right). The number at the top indicates how many half-lives have elapsed. Note the law of large numbers: With more atoms, the overall decay is less random. Image made with Mathematica, I am happy to send the source code if you would like to make this image more beautiful, or for any other reason.
Date 28 January 2010
Source Own work
Author Sbyrnes321

Licensing

Public domain I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.
In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so:
I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

(* Source code written in Mathematica 6.0, by Steve Byrnes, 2010. I release this code into the public domain. *)

SeedRandom[2]

(*Build list of point coordinates and radii*)

BuildCoordList[SqCenterX_, SqCenterY_, SqSide_, PtsPerRow_] := 
  Flatten[Table[{i, j}, {i, SqCenterX - SqSide/2, SqCenterX + SqSide/2, SqSide/(PtsPerRow - 1)},
     {j, SqCenterY - SqSide/2, SqCenterY + SqSide/2, SqSide/(PtsPerRow - 1)}], 1];

coordslist = Join[
   BuildCoordList[3.5, 1, 1.8, 20],
   BuildCoordList[3.5, 3, 1.8, 20],
   BuildCoordList[3.5, 5, 1.8, 20],
   BuildCoordList[3.5, 7, 1.8, 20],
   BuildCoordList[1, 1, .7, 2],
   BuildCoordList[1, 3, .7, 2],
   BuildCoordList[1, 5, .7, 2],
   BuildCoordList[1, 7, .7, 2]];
NumPts = Length[coordslist];
radiuslist = Join[Table[.03, {i, 1, 4*400}], Table[.1, {i, 1, 4*4}]];

(*Draw borders*)

xlist = {0, 2};
leftx = 0;
rightx = 2;
numx = Length[xlist];
ylist = {0, 2, 4, 6, 8};
topy = 0;
boty = 8;
numy = Length[ylist];
lines = {};
For[i = 1, i <= numy, i++, 
  lines = Append[lines, Line[{{leftx, ylist[[i]]}, {rightx, ylist[[i]]}}]]];
For[i = 1, i <= numx, i++, 
  lines = Append[lines, Line[{{xlist[[i]], topy}, {xlist[[i]], boty}}]]];

xlist = {2.5, 4.5};
leftx = 2.5;
rightx = 4.5;
numx = Length[xlist];
ylist = {0, 2, 4, 6, 8};
topy = 0;
boty = 8;
numy = Length[ylist];
For[i = 1, i <= numy, i++, 
  lines = Append[lines, Line[{{leftx, ylist[[i]]}, {rightx, ylist[[i]]}}]]];
For[i = 1, i <= numx, i++, 
  lines = Append[lines, Line[{{xlist[[i]], topy}, {xlist[[i]], boty}}]]];

(*Write numbers:
I want to be able to write a number with one decimal place,
including padding with ".0" when it's an integer.*)

WriteNum[num_] := Block[{rounded}, rounded = N[Floor[num, 0.1]];
    If[FractionalPart[rounded] == 0, ToString[rounded] <> "0", ToString[rounded]]];

(*Randomly choose decay times:
To get an expontial-decay-distributed random number, we pick a number uniformly between 0 and 1.
Take its negative log to get the time that it blows up, which is between 0 and infinity.
But divide by log 2 so that when the time = 1, there's 50% chance of decaying. *)

BlowTime = Table[-Log[RandomReal[]]/Log[2], {i, 1, NumPts}];

(*Draw graphics*)

GraphicsList = {};
NumFrames = 80;
TimePerFrame = .05;

Video = {};
For[frame = 1, frame <= NumFrames, frame++,
  CurrentTime = (frame - 1)*TimePerFrame;
  ImageGraphicsList = lines;
  ImageGraphicsList = 
   Append[ImageGraphicsList, Text[WriteNum[CurrentTime], {.8, 8.5}, {-1, 0}]];
  ImageGraphicsList = 
   Append[ImageGraphicsList, Text[WriteNum[CurrentTime], {3.3, 8.5}, {-1, 0}]];
  For[pt = 1, pt <= NumPts, pt++,
   If[CurrentTime < BlowTime[[pt]], 
    ImageGraphicsList =   Append[ImageGraphicsList, {Blue, Disk[coordslist[[pt]], radiuslist[[pt]]]}]]];
  Video = Append[Video, Graphics[ImageGraphicsList, ImageSize -> 100]];];

(*Pause at start*)
Video = Join[Table[Video[], {i, 1, 5}], Video];

(*Export*)
Export["test.gif", Video, "DisplayDurations" -> {10}, "AnimationRepititions" -> Infinity ]
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