Friday, February 23, 2018

The Island of Stability

<-- Previous (Dark Energy) (Gravitational Field Propulsion) Next -->



Randy tells Jim about the Island of Stability. This is a theoretically predicted region (or two, in one calculation) where the isotopes of atoms with heavy nuclei are stable. Jim and Randy talk about the islands, how they are attempting to get there, and some of the calculations people use to predict the stability of elements. Along the way, they mispronounce a lot of words.

-------------------------------------------

Notes:

1. The papers we read for this program:
2. The book I talked about on fluids that goes into the fluid model of the nucleus is Introduction to the Physics of Fluids and Solids by James S. Trefil, which is apparently no longer in print (I have a Dover edition, I love Dover). My favorite Modern Physics text is Rohlf, mostly because of its focus on scattering, but I taught from Serway, which is more standard.


3. Please visit and comment on our subreddit, and if you can help us keep this going by contributing to our Patreon, we'd be grateful.

<-- Previous (Dark Energy) (Gravitational Field Propulsion) Next -->

2 comments:

  1. I really loved this podcast! I thought I owned and read everything there was published on the periodic table! I had no idea that the first 92 Elements were called “the island of stability “. Thank you for this amazing podcast! I’ve listened to it many times!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Linda!

    We're still waiting to see if they get there! It really seems close!

    ReplyDelete