A dice has 6 faces. The probability for the dice to land on any one of the six faces is the same; the sum of the probabilities for the dice to land on any face must be 1 (the dice is sure to land!). So the probability to land on any one of the six faces is p = 1/6. If a client in a casino tosses a dice 600 times, it is to be expected that the face 3 will show up 100 times ( 600 x 1/6 ). The number of times a given outcome, Noutcome, is expected is
The same idea applies to the decay of radioactive nuclei. The number of radioactive decay per unit time is the number of nuclei in the sample times the probability that a nucleus decays per unit time, namely
A sample with twice the number of radioactive nuclei compared with a second sample produces twice the radioactivity, a reasonable conclusion. That radioactive decay follows a model based on throwing a dice is due to the fact that nuclei are governed by the rules of Quantum Mechanics.
Chapter 8.2
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