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Information
For a long time, Bismuth was regarded as the last stable element (all of the
isotopes of elements with atomic numbers greater than 84 have no stable
isotopes). However, it was recently measured to be radioactive, but with the
longest half-life to date: 20 billion billion years, which accounts to roughly
one alpha emission per hour. Therefore, for all practical intents and purposes
it is stable. But not quite.
Joseph's Element Collection
(left) Joseph bought this vial of Bismuth from the Red, Blue, and Green company.
(right) Joseph recieved this man-made bismuth crystal as a Christmas present.
References:
Holden, Norman E. (March 30, 2004). "History of the origin of the chemical
elements and their discoverers." National Nuclear Data Center. Retrieved
October 7, 2005 from
http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/content/elements.html
"List of elements by boiling point." (September 22, 2005). Wikipedia.
Retrieved October 9, 2005 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_boiling_point
"List of elements by density." (September 22, 2005). Wikipedia.
Retrieved October 9, 2005 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_density
"List of elements by melting point." (September 22, 2005). Wikipedia.
Retrieved October 9, 2005 from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_melting_point
"NIST chemistry webBook." (2005). National Institute of Standards and
Technology. Retrieved October 6, 2005 from
http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/
Zucker, M.A.; Kishore, A. R.; Sukumar, R.; and Dragoset, R. A. (July 2005).
"Elemental data index." National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Retrieved October 7, 2005 from
http://physics.nist.gov/PhysRefData/Elements/cover.html
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