• Question: If you would be an element , what element would you be?

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      Asked by 245drud47 to Anne, Florence, Mark, Neil, Sinead on 8 Nov 2015.
      • Photo: Mark Collins

        Mark Collins answered on 8 Nov 2015:

        I would be caesium, it is a very interesting element! It is highly reactive and can spontaneously ignite in air. And if you see it in a tube under argon or nitrogen it will be a solid as you hold the tube it will turn to liquid and become a shimmery silver as it changes state to a liquid due to having a boiling point of 28C. We also use it as the basis of atomic clocks and as we have discovered atomic clocks this has resulted in many inventions we use in our everyday life, such as satellite television, the internet and so many more! This is all as a result of a very dangerous but fascinating element, Caesium.

      • Photo: Sinead Balgobin

        Sinead Balgobin answered on 11 Nov 2015:

        Tough question!

        I don’t think I’m something like gold, or platinum which are expensive and glamorous. I’m not quite as dense as osmium… Carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen are all essential to life and can do so many things, but they are a bit of a boring choice. Sulfur, chlorine and bromine are all smelly, so I hope that’s not me!

        I’m gonna go for strontium, because it has lots of uses, but it still quite fun. It’s used in medicine (in x rays), in fireworks (the red ones all have strontium in), in cathode ray televisions (although we don’t really use them anymore) and in glow in the dark paints! It can be dangerous to humans though, because it is similar to calcium. It’s also made as a product in nuclear reactors, and in the fallout from nuclear bombs. Maybe that last bit doesn’t apply to me…

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