Platinum - Tales from the Periodic Table

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Күн бұрын

Platinum is the third most dense metal of all the elements and is exquisitely unreactive, chemically. It's is a member of the transition metals and part of the Platinum Group in the middle of the periodic table. It's exceeding rare and expensive. Having said this you can still find Platinum in your catalytic converter and spark plugs, and you may even own a piece of jewelry made from this element.

Пікірлер: 25

@waynesworldofsci-tech 6 ай бұрын

Bought enough of the stuff. I used to work in catalytic converter manufacturing. First time I saw the Big Nickle the city of Sudbury still looked like a Moonscape, but that was 1972.

@ronhipschman 6 ай бұрын

I'd love to hear more about catalytic converters. How much precious metal is actually in there? How thick does the layer of Platinum (or other Platinum group metal) need to be? Are they REALLY worth stealing from cars? Somehow I doubt those low-lifes have the skills to extract the metals... Ron

@waynesworldofsci-tech 6 ай бұрын

@@ronhipschman There is money in them, though not a lot. I’m getting ready to take Loki on his morning walk, hit me again later today. I get wrapped up in things, and forget minor details like food.

@johnhuldt 18 күн бұрын

These videos are great. I hope your page grows.

@ronhipschman 17 күн бұрын

I hope so too! Thanks for your kind words. Ron

@foo0815 6 ай бұрын

Sometimes very expensive flutes are made from Platinum. There is even a composition "Density 21.5" by Edgar Varèse for solo flute, whose title refers to the density of Platinum, of course.

@ronhipschman 6 ай бұрын

Very cool information! That's why I love doing this. I learn so much from each episode. I actually know of (but had forgotten about) that Varése piece. I have it in my iTunes library, and I'm listening to it as I write this reply! Thanks for the reminder. Ron

@greegearl1542 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for this marvelous presentation of element 78. I hope to visit Sudbury someday.

@ronhipschman 6 ай бұрын

You should! Science North is in the spirit of the Guggenheim in New York, where you start at the top and spiral down through the museum. Admittedly, I was there decades ago, but I had a great time, and was impressed with the quality of the museum and the staff. Ron

@DrDeuteron 18 күн бұрын

10:20 The proportion produced in core-collapse vs n-star mergers is an active area of research, and is not settled--basically computer power is at a point where the asymmetric natural of supernovae is now modeled, and its changing calculations. Non-linear neutrino oscillations are a big driver, it's pretty cool--it's really (for me) one of the only out-of-nowhere surprises in physics recently.

@ronhipschman 17 күн бұрын

@DrDeuteron, I'm using the Kobayashi paper from 2020 for this slide. You seem to be very well informed in this area (astrophysicist??? Involved in the nucleosynthesis field???). If so, and you have a more recent dataset (with a suitable graphic!) I would love to know more about it. Please advise. Even if I have now reached that portion of the table (Polonium) where there is little information, an update is always appreciated. Ron

@DrDeuteron 18 күн бұрын

btw, this is my 2nd vid. Since you explain 1/2 life from 1024, which might confuse some on the statistical nature, I went and computed the uncertainty in the number of atoms left (dN = sqrt(1024 x p x (1-p))) where p = 2**(-n) [bernoulli process/binomial distribution]: half lives atoms remaining. 1-sigma uncertainty 0 1024 0 1 512. 16.

@ronhipschman 17 күн бұрын

I think I see where you are going here (uncertainties at the various stages), but I was just trying to keep it simple to help explain the exponential nature of half-life. Thanks for the deeper look into the statistical nature of decay! Ron

@briancurtis6022 6 ай бұрын

Very cool! Were the "Everything Matters" element cards ever available as a set somewhere?

@ronhipschman 6 ай бұрын

Unfortunately, you had to come to the live talks to get the cards (and we allowed you to "fill in" your collection if you happened to miss one). However, I think we only had cards up to Indium, and then COVID hit. While I continued to produce the series at home, the Exploratorium stopped creation of the cards and then put the live series on "hiatus". I decided to continue producing the series for my KZbin channel without support. So far, so good! Maybe one day we can restart the live series and get those cards back in production!

@brfisher1123 6 ай бұрын

I think that the next element gold is prettier because platinum just looks like any other metal except that it doesn’t oxidize easily like most other metals. Platinum is still a gorgeous metal don’t get me wrong.

@ronhipschman 6 ай бұрын

You are right there. There aren't many metals that are not silvery (Copper and Gold are the only ones off the top of my head...) I'm not including alloys like brass and bronze. Ron

@jeu198 3 ай бұрын

You could improve these videos by getting a voice actor to do the narration. It's not that your voice is bad, it's just that a good voice actor like Luke Daniels (who will be out of your price range) can make anything just a bit more engaging. Everything else about these videos is great 👍🏻 This is my second video of yours, looking forward to more.

@ronhipschman 3 ай бұрын

jeu198, I appreciate your suggestion, but the entire budget for the production of these videos is precisely $0.00. It would be great to hire James Earl Jones for the narration, but that's just not in the cards. I hope you continue to watch my efforts. Thanks. Ron