I thought I might post the following image under the "Frost*erisk in real life" topic, but to be honest, how often do you come across a thousand pounds worth of radioactive tritium in sealed glass tubes lighting up phosphorescent [edit: changed from fluorescent] coatings in real life, eh?
But since I did have 100 to hand for a while, I couldn't resist making myself a new avatar ... :D
These glow continuously in the dark (don't have to be charged up with daylight) for more than ten years and are brilliant things to have on your key chain in case of power cuts, as well as when you're discussing neutron-activation of lithium-6 in nuclear reactors to produce tritium gas, and then the subsequent beta-decay to helium-3 and the emission of an electron and electron anti-neutrino via a W- boson and the weak interaction. As you do.
The image below shows a close-up of a couple of these so-called Glowrings (they're about 5cm long): you can buy them from the estimable Roger Green at nitewatches.com for under a tenner (I have no affiliation at all, but am just a customer). Completely safe; all radioactivity is absorbed in the inner glass tube.
Recommended for all geeks with or without kids :D
And you can get them in pink too, as well as the more manly blue and green ones!
I know what Santa will be putting in my boys' stockings this year... they're lovely!
very cool.
Is the "how to build a fusion reactor" included?
Cooler than a very cool thing!
*notes website for stocking fillers*
Must......have......now!
Glad you all like 'em. Just a wee note of caution, however: these are 15-30 second exposure images, so don't expect these things to glow super-brightly and indeed, you won't see any glow at all in the daytime. The level of radioactivity required for that would be more than your never-to-be-born-if-it-glowed-in-the-daytime-unborn-children could survive :shock:
No, they're relatively subtle little things, to be appreciated by the connoisseur. Then again, my seven and nine year old kids like them, so they're certainly stocking filler material.
(You're quite right, Catherine; they're also available in pink. If you like that sort of thing :D )
p.s. I've taken mine through airport security, along with my tritium-handed watch, so as far as I can tell, they don't set off security alarms. Then again, the US government apparently forbids the use of (militarily-useful) tritium for "frivolous" uses like key chains, so I probably wouldn't take mine to that side of the Atlantic.
Quote from: "Bokkie"very cool.
Is the "how to build a fusion reactor" included?
Well, the other ingredient in fusion reactors is deuterium, which you can get readily easily from seawater, or buy online in the form of heavy water. Your problem comes when you need to squash them together, which requires temperatures of 50-200 million K or so. Even my Aga doesn't reach that ... :D
'Captain, ye canna change the laws of physics. The dilithium crystals will no take it..' ;)
Quote from: "Trapezium Artist"which requires temperatures of 50-200 million K or so. Even my Aga doesn't reach that ... :D
There's still Jem's Pizza oven. :lol:
if you dropped it and it broke would you get radioactive feet?
Quote from: "drblowthingsup"if you dropped it and it broke would you get radioactive feet?
The outer coloured shell is acrylic and you can stand on it without danger of it breaking. The inner glass tube containing the tritium is more fragile, of course, but is loose in a small cavity and can take any sort of normal day-to-day abuse in my experience.
Even if the glass broke, the tritium is lighter than air (one proton, two neutrons) and would rise very rapidly and escape the Earth's atmosphere. It's radioactive via beta decay and can't penetrate the skin; it can only be harmful if it's inside you. But because it's in gaseous form here, almost all you'd breathe would immediately be exhaled. Tritiated water (HTO, the tritium analogue to deuterated or heavy water) can stick around inside you and be nominally more dangerous.
The median LD50 for (absorbed) tritium is apparently 10 Curies and one mole (22.4 litres of gas at STP) of T2 contains 57,000 Curies of radioactivity. However, each little glass tube contains only about 3 x 10^-6 of a mole, so 0.171 Curies, thus a factor of ~50 less than the LD50. Eeek! I was playing with 100 of these things last night ... :shock:
No, short answer is no: you're (very) safe.
heh
TA said "cavity".
Very cool. Methinks they will make excellent presents. Thanks, TA! :D
Quote from: "Trapezium Artist"Quote from: "Bokkie"the other ingredient in fusion reactors is deuterium
I've got delerium spare, will that do?
Quote from: "rogerg"heh
TA said "cavity".
:lol: He's a proper grown up.
Quote from: "Nellie"Quote from: "rogerg"heh
TA said "cavity".
:lol: He's a proper grown up.
I thank you, ma'am. The check's in the post. And the slovak's in the pillar.
Quote from: "Trapezium Artist"Quote from: "Nellie"Quote from: "rogerg"heh
TA said "cavity".
:lol: He's a proper grown up.
I thank you, ma'am. The check's in the post. And the slovak's in the pillar.
It's a bit early for that sort of pun. :roll:
Radioactive Frost*erisk???
(//http://david.chavanel.free.fr/FROST/radiocative_frosterisk.gif)
:lol:
Nice one - surely the cover for the Frost*fest CD? ;)
Quote from: "D S"Nice one - surely the cover for the Frost*fest CD? ;)
Now there's a thought ... The original picture at full-resolution is yours for the asking, Jem :D
(Or did you mean David's version?!)
Well, both actually. Expect Vitamin P to be emailing shortly... ;)