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Don't tell me my forum thread is "too sophisticated" for VR. Really? I know there's a lot of folks on here who can make speculations, guesses and decent replies. If you people can denounce physics, give "proof" of some moon goddess and also have educated discussions about evolution, time travel, aliens, sound/matter, etc then surely you can come up with something about future elements.

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xxEmaeraldxx
20:05 Nov 14 2011

Giggles.. really? that's a first! "emmy pins the rosette on your lapel" *claps*

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"Elements of Tomorrow" - new forum thread



In nearly every sci-fi or fantasy show you hear of fantastical new elements with amazing properties like latinum, dilithium and the ever lovable unobtainium.



An element by definition is a pure chemical substance that is made up of only one type of atom i.g copper, gold, oxygen etc.



Our little corner of the universe seems to be fairly representative of the bulk of the universe itself. Our sun appears to be made up of the same stuff all the other stars are, and Earth is likewise made up of similar elements that other rocky planets are.



So when we look for elements on Earth we expect to find them elsewhere in the universe, and we do.



Elements are placed into 3 categories:



1. Naturally occurring - hydrogen, iron, etc

2. Quasi-synthetic elements - elements that can exist in nature and are made naturally but that only last for brief periods or are found in only trace quantities. There are 6 of these elements known. Examples are plutonium and technetium.

3. Fully synthetic elements - is a chemical element that is too unstable to occur naturally on Earth, and therefore has to be created artificially. There are 24 elements that have only been discovered via their creation in a lab and can only exist in a lab.



There are 118 elements known, 1-94 occur to some extent naturally but elements 95 and higher are all fully synthetic.



Now, there are some pretty big rules and forces of nature that it seems gives us a maximum limit for the mass of an element before it spontaneously decays. Elements 101 and up have so much energy in them that their half-lives(t1/2) are all under 6 hours and many of them have t1/2 under 1 second.



In order for most elements to be useful they must have a stable isotope that lasts for at least a few hours. The problem of t1/2 and extreme radioactivity related to the mass of a new element can give us a prediction as to the maximum number of elements possible.



This "island of stability" can help us predict which transuranium elements might have a stable isotope and thus might either exist in some extreme star or be able to be created in a lab. It appears the maximum number of elements possible is between 124-130, all of those over 101 of course are incredibly radioactive and all over 110 don't last more than 10 seconds. Basically they blow themselves apart.



Another problem related to an element's usefulness is cost. A gram of weapons-grade plutonium (94) costs $4,000, however a gram of californium (98) would cost over $1 million to produce. (btw only 0.3g of californium are sold a year).



While the number of electrons for a given element may vary (U232, U238 etc) the number of protons (its atomic number) is pretty much fixed. For example there can't be an element 3.5 (3 being lithium and 4 beryllium).



So the question then becomes, is it realistically possible to find a stable, useful element that we don't know about that could have great properties like the fictional ones do? Or, are we left to a universe with only 118-130 elements, of which 94 are fairly useful and cheap, but, perhaps could we find new combinations of the various elements and their isotopes that can give us awesome new chemical abilities?



Or finally, are we pretty much stuck with what we've got and mostly maxed out the number of useful elements and basic compounds? (basic being no more than 2-3 different elements combined together)

Question:

If all whole numbers are either prime or composite and if out of 1,000 only 168 (1,000 - 168P = 832C) are prime then there are an infinite number of composite numbers.



Yes or no?

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Requiem
12:31 Nov 09 2011

Yes.





..





I am pretty damn sure, yes.

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Xzavier
09:03 Nov 10 2011

Yup. Just wanted to see if that would trip anyone up.

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Soon after I joined I started a "quote of the day" section on my profile. Well, I stopped updating it like a month later. I kept it on my profile because they were great quotes and people liked them but I'm trying to streamline my profile now and being 4 years with no additions I think they're just taking up space.



I took them off my profile but I'm listing them here for your enjoyment.



"We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective."

Dwight D. Eisenhower

11/18/2007



"Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends."

Czech Proverb 11/17/2007



"Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand. "

Baruch Spinoza

11/16/2007



"Persuasion is often more effectual than force. "

Aesop

11/15/2007



"Those Who Sacrifice Liberty For Security Deserve Neither"

--Benjamin Franklin

--11/12/2007



"He who knows does not speak.

He who speaks does not know."

--Lao-tzu

--11/11/2007



"Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil."

--Plato

--11/09/2007



"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."



--William James

--11/06/2007



"It's wonderful what we can do if we're always doing."



--George Washington

--11/05/2007



"It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it."

--Robert E. Lee

--11/04/2007



"Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors."



--Ralph Waldo Emerson

--11/03/2007



"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."



--Henry David Thoreau

--11/02/2007



"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."



--Albert Einstein

--11/01/2007



"No price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

--Friedrich Nietzsche

--10/30/2007



"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. "

-- Sir Winston Churchill

--10/29/2007



"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. "

--Confucius

--10/21/2007





"Education is the best provision for the journey to old age."

-- Aristotle

--10/17/2007





"Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing." -- Oscar Wilde

--10/16/2007





"You will have what you want when you want what you have."

--10/15/2007

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Requiem
23:52 Nov 08 2011

Regarding your last, "If you cannot have what you want, change your mind until you are happy with what you have."

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