I'm not a chemist, but I've had some training along those lines. Besides, aBev probably does.
physicist is supposed to have the 30,000-foot view of chemistry (and all
other sciences), so I'd be happy to take a stab at Bill's questions.
Bill Jones writes:
OK, I've put you in suspense. Here's a hint: uranium (a metal) has ahexa*fluoride. IOW, six atoms of fluorine (the non-metal) and one of
uranium can form a "salt" together. If you look inside the cover of
your CRC manual, you'll see that this is pretty rare among the
elements. I think only chromium can do this. Well, now look beyond
uranium to the first three man-made elements. They can also have a
charge of +6.
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Looking at my CRC manual (doesn't *everyone* have a _Handbook of Chemistry
and Physics_ laying about her house? :-))
, I see that chromium's columnarYou're bending the truth quite a bit. I meant horizontal neighbors. Only in the higher elements does the shell structure achieve the size necessary to support three elements in a row with the same valance. The first time we notice it is in the transition metals, where lots of horizontal neighbors have valance of 2 or 3. Columnar neighbors always tend to have similar oxidation states (it's what makes halogens halogens, for example). Further, neptunium, plutonium, and americium (the 3 sixes in question) became known as elements roughly in order shortly after transmutation of elements first occurred (by human intervention) in a reactor. In case you're not familiar with that process, samples of elements are bombarded with a stream of deuterium nuclei. Obviously it's quite unnatural, and these three elements have much more in common that your post would indicate.
neighbors, molybdenum and tungsten, also have a +6 oxidation state. So do
technetium, rhenium, sulfur, selenium, and tellurium. It's unusual, but not
all that rare. Now +7, that is rare -- only iodine, technetium and rhenium
achieve that lofty level of ionization.
Bill continues:Maybe just not to go there at all.
Now, I've been asked to accept on faith that the _first_ sustainednuclear fission occurred at the U. of Chicago during the early 20th
century (other than those which have occurred spontaneously in nature, a
fascinating but extremely rare event). If you simply question this
notion, it leaves open the possibility that someone long ago found this
signpost and sent a warning to future generations.
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I don't quite follow. Are you saying that the "number of the beast" is a
warning not to stack bricks of uranium metal too closely?
From what I've seen, it might as easily be a warning not to inhale sulfurfumes, eat locoweed, or try synthesizing technetium.
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