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Topic: physics and Chemistry  (Read 10428 times)

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Minio

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physics and Chemistry
« on: July 26, 2004, 06:39:16 PM »
Hi! I'm 16 and I'm not very good speak English, so if I make a mistake, I'm sorry. I have this question: where can I have a radioactive elements, like uran or americ ? I don't want do make a atomic bomb, I'm only interesting this. With greedings. PS. Somebody want to have a new friend who loves physics and new teories, like TOE?  :)
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Offline Donaldson Tan

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #1 on: July 27, 2004, 01:22:13 PM »
Radioactive elements? You can find them in hospitals, as radioactive substances are employed as tracers or radiation source for medical imaging.

TOE? Theory Of Everything? To-date, nobody has successfully created the Grand Unified Theory (GUT) to relate all the quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity. Perhaps Set Theory is the most probable TOE as it applies to alot of things. LOL
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Offline gregpawin

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #2 on: July 28, 2004, 12:30:12 PM »
If you're looking for easily accessible radioactive elements, you can look for camping lantern mantles or certain types of smoke detectors.  Then again, you can find those crazy uranium marbles they sell on e-bay.  Back in the day they used to use uranium paint to color the hands on watches so that'd glow in the dark.  Those poor people who painted these things by hand "mysteriously" got different kinds of cancers.

Depending on your friend's level of math skill, you can show him the Michael Green narrated Nova series about the story of string/M theory http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000ZG0TA/qid=1091031936/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl74/104-4203464-2355953?v=glance&s=dvd&n=507846.  Or you can read a more thorough treatment of it written by Green and Ed Witten http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521357527/qid=1091031077/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-4203464-2355953?v=glance&s=books
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Offline jdurg

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #3 on: July 28, 2004, 06:45:35 PM »
They never painted watch hands with uranium paint.  Never.  I think you have the uranium glazes used on Fiestaware confused with the radium paint used on watch hands.  ;)  ;D  Radium is highly radioactive, so it is easily able to excite the phosphorescent compound mixed with the radium chloride and cause the compound to glow.  If it was glowing from the radiation alone, then anyone near it would be dead.   :P
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Offline gregpawin

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #4 on: July 28, 2004, 07:02:02 PM »
I stand corrected... but what is this Fiestaware?  and were they still partying at the end of the day?
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Offline jdurg

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2004, 10:23:02 PM »
Fiestaware is/was a brand of pottery based dishes that was VERY popular back in the fifties.  They used uranium oxides and other uranium compounds in order to get the bright, intense colors that the Fiestaware dishes had in their glazes.  The radiation those plates give off is pretty intense.  However, the radioactivity wasn't as much of a threat as the chemical toxicty from the uranium and lead which was in the glaze.  If an acidic food was eaten off of those plates, there's a good chance that some of the uranium and lead would leech into the food.  
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Offline Mitch

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #6 on: July 29, 2004, 01:54:48 AM »
I believe the uranium was actually in the glaze, but I can't remember for sure. Dr. Rettig has some of those plates. I'm sure he'll consider you using them for a demonstration or something. ':)
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Offline jdurg

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Re:physics and Chemistry
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2004, 03:59:13 PM »
Yeah, it was in the glaze.  Otherwise, how could it improve the color of said glaze?  ;)  ;D
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