Ask a physicist anything. (5)

[Wiccan_Child]

What is your favourite element (from the periodic table, of course), and why?

Hmm. So many, so many...

Hydrogen! So elegant, yet so commonplace. It powers the Sun and will power the next generation of human energy production. Ah, sweet hydrogen.

But my vote has to go to Proctaninium. Oh, element ninety-one, you capture both the heart and the imagination

I'm also interested in superheavy elements. Please could you explain them to me?

There're, like, elements, heavier than other elements, and then, like, some are heavier still. They're not just heavy, they're super heavy, man. Superheavy.

 

[Nabobalis]

Mine was an old Russian professor whose grasp of English... wasn't so good, to the extent that we had no idea what equations he was using. So I went away, derived the same result, and so we had a clear idea what all the terms meant.

I don't know if he was just mental, or if it's standard in Russian, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on

I have a Russian supervisor, he is huge! Kind of like shrek.

 

[AV1611VET]

Is Jeopardy! on TV in England?

If so, do they use 'pounds', instead of 'dollars'?

 

[mzungu]

Is Jeopardy! on TV in England?

If so, do they use 'pounds', instead of 'dollars'?

YouTube - Jeopardy! (UK Version): Part #1/3

 

[mzungu]

Hmm. So many, so many...

Hydrogen! So elegant, yet so commonplace. It powers the Sun and will power the next generation of human energy production. Ah, sweet hydrogen.

But my vote has to go to Proctaninium. Oh, element ninety-one, you capture both the heart and the imagination


There're, like, elements, heavier than other elements, and then, like, some are heavier still. They're not just heavy, they're super heavy, man. Superheavy.

Ah the good old days of "Phlogiston", Dragons, and a flat earth! Actually I would not mind owning 100 kgs of Au.

 

[AV1611VET]

YouTube - Jeopardy! (UK Version): Part #1/3

Thank you, sir!

 

[Supreme]

Hmm. So many, so many...

Hydrogen! So elegant, yet so commonplace. It powers the Sun and will power the next generation of human energy production. Ah, sweet hydrogen.

But my vote has to go to Proctaninium. Oh, element ninety-one, you capture both the heart and the imagination


There're, like, elements, heavier than other elements, and then, like, some are heavier still. They're not just heavy, they're super heavy, man. Superheavy.

I was reading in NewScientist (being the very scientifically literate gentleman I am), that the shortest lifespan of a superheavy element was a minute or so. I may not remember exactly, but it was something like that.

My favourite element is carbon. It's the most important element of life, with most of our bodies consisting of it- and I love the incredibly different isotopes, hydrocarbons and compounds it can form.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

I was reading in NewScientist (being the very scientifically literate gentleman I am), that the shortest lifespan of a superheavy element was a minute or so. I may not remember exactly, but it was something like that.

I'd say it was a fraction of a fraction of a second; a minute is quite long.

My favourite element is carbon. It's the most important element of life, with most of our bodies consisting of it- and I love the incredibly different isotopes, hydrocarbons and compounds it can form.

If our bodies are ~70% water, wouldn't that mean our bodies are mostly hydrogen/oxygen?

 

[Nostromo]

Is that 70% by mass?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Is that 70% by mass?

By volume, I think. I did some research (aka, Google); Oxygen is 3.5 times more abundant than Carbon by mass, and 2.6 times more abundant by number of molecules.

Hydrogen, being so light, is the third most abundant element by weight, but by number makes up 63% of the human body - unsurprising, since there are two atoms per molecule of water, and on average two per carbon atom. Hooray for Hydrogen!

 

[mzungu]

Oh the irony; That the much coveted by humans heavy elements are the last to be created in the cauldrons of the stars that die the violent death as supernovae which in turn are the very reason we exist today. The very elements that has brought such greed and power (gold, platinum, uranium, etc.) to the hearts of mortals. They are created only at the moment of death of the star and are released with the explosion!

Beautiful beasts these supernovae

YouTube - Supernovas: When Stars Die

 

[mzungu]

Thank you, sir!

You are welcome my good man!

 

[Supreme]

By volume, I think. I did some research (aka, Google); Oxygen is 3.5 times more abundant than Carbon by mass, and 2.6 times more abundant by number of molecules.

Hydrogen, being so light, is the third most abundant element by weight, but by number makes up 63% of the human body - unsurprising, since there are two atoms per molecule of water, and on average two per carbon atom. Hooray for Hydrogen!

My bad. But carbon is the most important element for life. Carbon atoms bond with each other in long chains, the chains can be branched or join up as rings, and carbon elements bond with other important elements such as hydrogen or oxygen. And obviously, the linking of carbon to carbon in long chains is the backbone of important molecules.

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Ooh! This thread is back!

Such goodness!

Subscribing.

 

[pgp_protector]

What is your favourite element (from the periodic table, of course), and why?
...snip...

Californium why? I'm from California

Though the wife like crystalline carbon.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Californium why? I'm from California

Though the wife like crystalline carbon.

Nothing like sexy, sexy Carbonado!

 

[Steffenfield]

Okay. You've probably seen the trick of blowing out a candle and then lighting the smoke to reignite the candle, yes?

So say your house is filling up with smoke due to some small fire going on and you have a candle that's lit next to your bed on your nightstand or something.

Once the smoke finally reaches this fire source, would your entire home immediately burn completely?

 

[Wiccan_Child]

Okay. You've probably seen the trick of blowing out a candle and then lighting the smoke to reignite the candle, yes?

So say your house is filling up with smoke due to some small fire going on and you have a candle that's lit next to your bed on your nightstand or something.

Once the smoke finally reaches this fire source, would your entire home immediately burn completely?

The candle trick works because the column of smoke still has a lot of flammable particulates in it - mainly from the wick. These burn down until the wick itself is on fire, and, thus, the candle is relit. This only happens when the candle is blown out: the residual heat blows particulates out as smoke, but there's no flame to burn them. A fire would burn any fuel that might escape the flames, so lighting the smoke of a burning candle won't do anything.

If your home is on fire, the smoke is not unburnt fuel (e.g., wick, wood), but burnt fuel, so the smoke isn't going to catch fire any time soon. Moreover, the smoke in a real fire has a heck of a lot of CO in it, so the lack of fuel and oxygen means its unlikely to ignite.

So, a blown out candle is heavy in oxygen (a thin column of smoke has easy access to the O[sub]2[/sub] around it) and fuel (there's a lot of unburnt fuel in the smoke shortly after you blow a candle out), and so can be lit, eventually relighting the wick itself.

 

[Cabal]

Californium why? I'm from California

Though the wife like crystalline carbon.

Seriously, why isn't there an Irelandium yet?

*grumblgrumblgrumbl*

 

[Supreme]

Californium why? I'm from California

Though the wife like crystalline carbon.

They got lazy when they started naming elements like Californium, Americium and Germanium. I mean, names like oxygen and hydrogen at least required more imagination than the name of the place they were discovered.