Gilded

It's a commonly known trick, and it's featured in many, many crappy texts or pages.

"i figure the grains of BP would rub against each other with such force under good pressure that they would ignite each other..."

Well, it's used in pistols so it has to be like that, if we're talking about pistol grade BP.

Heh, didn't Marie Curie get 1g of pure radium when he got the Nobel prize? I can imagine how unhealthy that must have been.

Edit: And didn't the guy who discovered plutonium keep it in a matchbox in his pocket? Canceriffic!

I think there was a black paint in Guinness World Records that absorbs light amazingly well, I think it was somewhere around 99.9%. It would be nice to paint a house with that stuff.

Is it even physically possible for matter to have 100% reflectivity? What about 100% absorption (without heavy gravity like black holes or such)?

"also, i think it would be quite cool talking point to have lump of U-235."

Heh, I bet. Too bad it's highly regulated (yes, it's the fissionable one).

"I really like bismuth for some reason."

Well who doesn't? It's strange how only the purest element can make beautiful multicolored crystals. Bismuth "eggs" are cool too. It's an interesting element in just about every aspect, especially for it's weird stability: It was before considered to have a stable isotope, but nowadays it's known that it's most stable isotope is "metastable", and has a half-life of about 2x10^19 years.

For me, some compounds would be an interesting addition. Such as deuterium oxide, a.k.a. heavy water. But I don't think I'd put potassium nitrate in my potassium section.

Edit: Also, it's nice to have samples of the same element with different structures; such as coal and a small diamond under C. I don't recommend getting white phosphorous to accompany the red one though, lol. Or U-235 to accompany your small piece of depleted uranium.

"each is appreciated for its own beauty"

Of course, of course! But when you happen to have extra cash, you just might want to get a sample of it in a different form. For example, titanium in a gem, or a spark plug with an unusual element. I think it's great to see not only pure elements, but some items that take advantage of them. Then you go like "who would have guessed that gallium is used in LEDs".

Thou shalt not have mercy upon pine tables!

Hey jdurg, if you're looking for pure samples (even for radioactives) technetium, thorium and uranium are probably the only ones you can have in observable quantities. I (personally) like the idea of having all elements that occur naturally on Earth, no matter if they're not too pure. Of course, I'm going to get a >99% of everything I can. And since I've collected gemstones/minerals since I was 5 or something, it's also nice to have cool gems with interesting elements in them (for example rutile quartz (quartz with TiO2 needles in it) which I have, and the uranium-beryllium allanite I talked about, also known as "muromontite", which I don't have, but I would sell my other kidney for a piece of it ).

"I have a complete collection of the elements."

Great to see that someone else is interested in element collecting. Perhaps we'll meet someday in an element collector meeting or something.

"I have a complete collection of the elements. (Minus fluorine and the radioactives)."

Oh but the radioactives are the best part, up to 95 that is. Uranium ore is easy to obtain (atleast in Finland you don't even need a permit to own even highly active ore samples), radium and promethium from antique clocks, thorium from lantern mantles (pure metal is quite easy to obtain too) and with the U-ore you get astatine, francium and radon in one sample. Also, a nice addition to your collection is a smoke detector ionization chamber; it contains americium and it's decay product neptunium. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, there's a little amount of plutonium in uranium-beryllium allanite. Oh, and technetium; that's a bit tricky, but there are companies that can provide small pieces of actual technetium metal.

So, now we know krypton and xenon can be in forms of compounds. But can helium, argon, neon or radon? From what I've read, they can't.

Yeah, gallium has a nasty sticking habit.

Yes, Rb-87 is over 1/4 of all naturally occurring rubidium. It's half-life is almost 50 billion years, so it isn't too dangerous. It's the medium-half-lifed isotopes you should watch out for.

Yeah, especially when the other gas is much lighter than the other.

I think every pyrochemist should buy like 100 square meters of forest in the middle of nowhere and then go there to blow up stuff.

"United nuclear used to sell a uranium salt. Im not sure I would want to be around that stuff!"

Yeah, that stuff is not too nice. I wouldn't care to eat a reactor fuel pellet (which they also used to sell) either. It's fun how in the 50's or so people were "yay, radiation is healthy and fun" and even glazed plates with uranium dioxide. And the "revigorators"... geez. "Let's put some water in there and drink it in the morning when it's heavily radiated!"

Ah yes, why didn't I think about WebElements, they have a compound of just about every element.

KrF2 has a nice crystal structure, it seems.

Thanks mate.

I bet mercury would be fine too, but if gimpy prefers as non-toxic liquids as possible, then gallium is probably a healthier option.

Not much.

http://www.mellesgriot.com/glossary/wordlist/glossarydetails.asp?wID=175

About a laser that uses it.

Hey, why don't you use gallium? It's quite heavy and will even go under the syrup. Just remember to keep the columns temp above 30 to keep it that way.

"impossible; you cant reduce krypton"

Then howcome krypton fluoride has been made? It's even solid in room temp, though not very stable. I think it's used in lasers.

D'oh! Good point. What about kerosene? Or is that too flammable for you gimpy?

"Will the space trip for bringing mineral and some useful materials back to the earth be created later?"

Huh? indeed. It seems that you posted in the wrong thread or something.

You could use syrup for the bottom layer. I'm not sure what you could use to top the corn oil, probably the only choice is ethyl alcohol or the like.

If someone happens to have heavy water (hydrogen-1s replaced by deuterium), you can really annoy your friends with "hey, I bet you 5$ that this ice cube sinks when I put it in the water glass".

Ok, now that it has been said thrice, I think it has become clear that they have good animations.