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/sci/ - Science & Math

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6398871 No.6398871[DELETED]  [Reply] [Original]

You know how certain elements have unstable isotopes that emit radioactivity and slowly decay over time into totally different elements? Eg. Uranium and Lead.

What if every element on the periodic table was just a result of a similar situation with the very first element? Kind of like a domino effect.

I have 2 questions:

1. If this is a plausible theory, what do you think this original element is?

2. We can't know that all the elements on the periodic table so far are all we will ever discover. So is it possible that some current elements will decay into completely undiscovered ones in time?

>> No.6398882

1. Not a plausible theory

2. No, not really

>> No.6398890

Every element on the periodic table is a result of fusion, which occurs in stars.
The "very first" element was hydrogen, and the other elements were "built up" from hydrogen. Not the other way around.

>> No.6398904

All atoms want to achieve a state of lowest energy. This is a fact of chemistry that can be easily observed.

You may be right, but as protons and neutrons are added, there are "steps", where the newly created element becomes more stable on its own than it did in separate parts.

1. Hydrogen, obviously.
2. No, the periodic table may get bigger but it won't get smaller.

Right now Hydrogen is the simplest element having only one proton, one neutron, one electron. Luckily elements have these finite building blocks. Though like you said some can have more neutrons or electrons or whatever and be radioactive, if it has more protons then it will be a different element altogether.

>> No.6398927

>>6398904
An atom with more electrons isn't radioactive

>> No.6398932

>>6398927
he meant neutrons.

>> No.6398934

>>6398871
If this were the case:

1. you would be dying of radiation poisoning

2. you would not exist as a human being to begin with.

>> No.6398941

>>6398932
He said neutrons and electrons I don't think he meant to say neutrons and neutrons

>> No.6398942

>>6398904
Hydrogen has one proton and one electron. Deuterium has one proton, one electron and one neutron. Tritium has one proton, one electron and two neutrons.

>> No.6398943

>>6398904
but many thousands of years after the big bang wouldn't dense, high atomic number and mass atoms exist simply because they came from something as dense as the singularity?

>> No.6398957

>>6398941
Ok then he meant protons. my bad.

>> No.6398967

>>6398957
No having more protons makes it a different element

>> No.6398977

>>6398967
Oh right I feel stupid.
He's a dumbass then.