How is Checking Counts When Decay Events Overlap structured on New Regents?

Use the timing of simulated decay events to distinguish detector count loss from a change in the decay rate. Every question is worth 1 raw credit and pairs with the 2025 Edition Reference Tables, automatic multiple-choice key checking, and step-by-step constructed-response scoring guidance.

Can I practice one phenomenon cluster at a time or sit the full exam?

Yes. In the New Regents workspace you can launch any individual 4–6 question cluster in Learn mode (with strategy prompts) or sit the complete examination in Exam mode, then review every answer against the official-style scoring guide.

Checking Counts When Decay Events Overlap with Answers (Free PDF)

4 original questions from New Regents. The worksheet, answer key, and browser practice are free.

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Checking Counts When Decay Events Overlap 4 questions

Checking Counts When Decay Events Overlap

Base your answers on the information provided and your knowledge of chemistry. Use the 2025 Chemistry Reference Tables as needed.

A classroom nuclear simulation records one event for each parent nucleus that decays. Its display can show at most one count in each one-second window. The timeline shows the events that actually occur in two trials.

Timeline divided into four one-second windows. Trial P has two events in window 1, none in window 2, two in window 3, and none in window 4. Trial Q has one event in each window. — Each mark on the timeline represents one actual decay event in the model.

Question 1

Which trial has the greater number of actual decays over all four windows?

P only
Q only
They are equal.
The event record cannot compare them.

Question 2

Calculate the count shown by the display for each trial. Use the display rule for each window.

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Question 3

A student says the original display proves that Q underwent twice as many decays. Explain why the display does not support that conclusion.

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The class repeats P with half-second windows. Each pair of events in the original record falls in different halves of its second.

Question 4

Predict the new displayed total. Explain why changing the window can change that total while the simulated decays stay the same.

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