Recent comments in /f/askscience
onegumas t1_jccuui1 wrote
Reply to comment by mfb- in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower
Wait... But if there is a gravity a single atom in perfect vacuum will gradually lose (kinetic) energy and will "fall" on surface?
[deleted] t1_jccov7c wrote
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[deleted] t1_jccfz1x wrote
kjpmi t1_jcc8aiv wrote
Reply to comment by Bbrhuft in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower
You can test your furnace air filter after it has been collecting dust for a while, with a Geiger counter with the right probe.
Even if you don’t have a radon problem, you will detect a slightly higher decay count compared to background.
Ridley_Himself t1_jcc4gt0 wrote
Reply to Was T. rex's skull bulletproof? by aesthetic_rex
If soldiers are coming in with the intent of killing T-rex, they would likely have equipment for it, and gun designs were developed for the express purpose of hunting large animals such as elephants.
Funny enough, I just stumbled across a rifle cartridge called a .577 Tyrannosaur.
[deleted] t1_jcbyr8w wrote
Reply to comment by [deleted] in Was T. rex's skull bulletproof? by aesthetic_rex
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Twink_Ass_Bitch t1_jcbu73r wrote
Reply to comment by honey_102b in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower
Isolated metal atoms are actually very reactive compared to metal atoms bound in a bulk solid phase. It wouldn't surprise me if a lead atom would spontaneously react with gases in the atmosphere.
11111v11111 t1_jcbrvd6 wrote
Reply to comment by QuietGanache in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower
Sounds like something to be cautious of, but I've read that the risk is way overblown.
Hazel-Rah t1_jcbro8r wrote
Reply to comment by wombatlegs in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower
Radon decays with alpha particles, which are just bare helium nuclei, two neutrons and two protons
So the electrons will tend to stay with the new Po-218 atom, giving it a nice -2 charge, which will encourage it to attach itself to whatever random dust it passes by.
Once the alpha particle slows down, it will pick up some electrons from somewhere eventually too.
[deleted] t1_jcbopx0 wrote
Putrid-Repeat t1_jcbh2oz wrote
Reply to comment by caraamon in Radon is a monatomic gas, but its decay products are solids. After a decay, what happens to the individual atoms of the daughter elements? Do they stay suspended in the atmosphere or slowly rain out? by foodtower
Agreed with the others in that it is somewhat arbitrary as in the is no fixed number and it may vary with the element or molecule in question. But we usually consider it when the aggregate of atoms is relatively stable and has bulk properties of the solid. A gas or clump of atoms even of the same type likely will not behave as a solid of the same constituents.
RobusEtCeleritas t1_jcd2xwg wrote
Reply to comment by subjectivity_one in How many photons are released during emission? by subjectivity_one
The single photon is emitted in a superposition of all directions, with the angular distribution defined by the angular momentum it carries. However when you detect the photon, you entangle the state of your detector with the state of the photon such that the state of the photon decoheres to a single direction. So it looks like the photon traveled in a single, random direction, as opposed to a superposition of all directions.