Sunday, January 13, 2008

Chemical Elements - Random Trivia Answers

  • A1) Selenium. Jons Jakob Berzelius discovered selenium in 1818 and would discover thorium eleven years later. In between, he found the element most closely associated with computers, silicon.
  • A2) Astatine. Ununseptium, the temporary name for the spot beneath it on the periodic table, may eventually also be considered to be a halogen.
  • A3) Tellurium. The semiconductor is very rare but is used in rewritable CDs and DVDs.
  • A4) Einsteinium. Albert Einstein declined the leadership role in Israel and would pass away three years later.
  • A5) Uranium. U-235 is the isotope usually used to create nuclear energy.
  • A6) Phosphorus. The DNA and RNA component is also the only element whose name ends with the letter 's'.
  • A7) Erbium. Terbium and ytterbium are also lanthanides, while yttrium is a transition metal.
  • A8) Sulfur (also spelled sulphur). The yellow crystal is a component of gunpowder and match heads.
  • A9) Oxygen. While we think of the gas as life-giving because we breathe it, oxygen makes up two-thirds of the body, mostly in the form of water.
  • A10) Nitrogen. Just under four-fifths of the air is nitrogen, with oxygen making up most of the rest.
  • A11) Iodine. Iodized salt is still a kitchen and dinner table staple.
  • A12) Cesium (also spelled caesium). 9,192,631,770 radiation cycles of cesium-133 equals one second.

Bonus answer: the chemical symbols of the answers can be concatenated to spell "Se At Tl Es U P Er S O N I Cs", or "Seattle Supersonics".

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