2 ms·

So are even heavier elements more interesting. I would expect more coloured elements, more liquid elements at room temperature for heavier elements. Can the nu

So are even heavier elements more interesting. I would expect more coloured elements, more liquid elements at room temperature for heavier elements. Can the number of neutrons in an isotope make a big difference, there are a few elements which have a wide range of isotopic weights, if a property was quite delicate I’d expect such changes to be quite apparent, tricky for millisecond half lives.

FreeFull 6y ago
One thing that comes to mind is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_isotope_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_isotope_effect , although this seems to mostly affect elements that only have a few protons, like hydrogen or oxygen. Still, it adds up enough so that replacing most of the water in your body with heavy water (D₂O) would be fatal.. But, you'd have to drink exclusively heavy water for a long time to actually reach a toxic dose.
- deleted 6y ago
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- zeristor 6y ago
  Yes thanks for reminding me about Heavy Water ice, and how it sinks in a glass of water too. Also I have subscript envy, and shall scour the Internet as to how to do subscripts in HN.
  - FreeFull 6y ago
    I used the subscript 2 unicode character (U+2082). As far as I know, HN's formatting doesn't include anything to do subscripts. (At least, https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc does not mention it.)
radioactivist 6y ago
Most of the properties of materials are from the charged pieces that make them up -- the protons and electrons. Since adding neutrons wouldn't change the number of electrons or protons other isotopes would be almost identical for the purposes of chemistry, light, etc. Some small differences might crop up in things that depend explicitly on the mass of the nucleus (e.g. sound propagation, density). But given adding a few neutrons in heavy nucleus is a change of order a percent or so in mass it isn't likely to be dramatic.
- zeristor 6y ago
  My main question was are the only examples in Mercury, and Gold? AI, and Hg are next to each other on the periodic table, just on the metal / non-metal boundary, beneath them are the Rg, and Cn. Rg Roentgenium has a short half life, but seems to be tricky to make, it is expected to show some Relativistic properties though: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roentgenium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roentgenium Cn Copernicum, according to Wikipedia seems to show RQM effects it acting like a noble gas, albeit one with a half-life of at most 28s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicium If so why only these too? I’d expect there to be several others with mysterious properties too.
deleted 6y ago
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FreeFull 6y ago

One thing that comes to mind is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_isotope_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_isotope_effect , although this seems to mostly affect elements that only have a few protons, like hydrogen or oxygen. Still, it adds up enough so that replacing most of the water in your body with heavy water (D₂O) would be fatal.. But, you'd have to drink exclusively heavy water for a long time to actually reach a toxic dose.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
zeristor 6y ago
Yes thanks for reminding me about Heavy Water ice, and how it sinks in a glass of water too. Also I have subscript envy, and shall scour the Internet as to how to do subscripts in HN.
- FreeFull 6y ago
  I used the subscript 2 unicode character (U+2082). As far as I know, HN's formatting doesn't include anything to do subscripts. (At least, https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc does not mention it.)

radioactivist 6y ago

Most of the properties of materials are from the charged pieces that make them up -- the protons and electrons. Since adding neutrons wouldn't change the number of electrons or protons other isotopes would be almost identical for the purposes of chemistry, light, etc. Some small differences might crop up in things that depend explicitly on the mass of the nucleus (e.g. sound propagation, density). But given adding a few neutrons in heavy nucleus is a change of order a percent or so in mass it isn't likely to be dramatic.

zeristor 6y ago
My main question was are the only examples in Mercury, and Gold? AI, and Hg are next to each other on the periodic table, just on the metal / non-metal boundary, beneath them are the Rg, and Cn. Rg Roentgenium has a short half life, but seems to be tricky to make, it is expected to show some Relativistic properties though: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roentgenium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roentgenium Cn Copernicum, according to Wikipedia seems to show RQM effects it acting like a noble gas, albeit one with a half-life of at most 28s: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicium https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicium If so why only these too? I’d expect there to be several others with mysterious properties too.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]