Element 100 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fm

Fermium was discovered on November 1, 1952 after being discovered in the fallout of the first hydrogen bomb test. It was discovered by scientist Albert Ghiorso and his co-workers at the University of Berkeley in California. Ghiorso was renowned for many physics and nuclear related experiments including work related to the Manhattan Project. Following the Second World War, Ghiorso, in collaboration with others discovered a variety of new elements including berkelium, californium, einsteinium, and fermium. During the 1950s Ghiorso was in charge of the Berkeley Heavy Ion Linear Accelerator that was used to discover nobelium , lawrencium, rutherfordium, dubnium and seaborgium. From the 1970s to the 1990s, his research mainly involved producing or identifying superheavy elements that are now a part of the 107-118 range on the periodic table of elements.

Answer: Physics

Enrico Fermi was an Italian physicist who has been credited with inventing the very first nuclear reactor: the Chicago Pile-1. In 1938, he won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his "demonstrations of the existence of new radioactive elements produced by neutron irradiation, and for his related discovery of nuclear reactions brought about by slow neutrons". Rather than return to Italy, he moved to the United States fearing the effects of radical governmental laws that would affect his wife Laura Capon, who was Jewish.

After his move to the US, he became involved in numerous projects including the Manhattan Project. He died in 1954 at the age of 53 from stomach cancer, thought to be linked to his work with radioactive elements.

Answer: Ivy Mike

"Ivy Mike" was the code name given to the very first successful hydrogen bomb test by the United States. It was part of a greater series of nuclear tests known as "Operation Ivy". The purpose of these programs was to upgrade military nuclear weapons as a means to respond to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

The bomb was detonated on November 1, 1952 over Elugelab Island, which was once part of the Marshall Islands but was destroyed by the bomb. It was discovered that "Ivy Mike" yielded 10.4 megatons (TNT power) which was 500 times more than that of the bomb that destroyed Nagasaki during the Second World War.

Answer: Actinides

Actinides are a series of fifteen metallic chemical elements whose atomic numbers range from 89-103. All actinides are radioactive and are quite unstable. Most of the actinide series of elements do not occur naturally, with the exception of uranium and thorium, which can be mined. Fermium is a synthetic element that is produced by combining actinides and neutrons in nuclear reactors.

Answer: 100.5 days

NUBASE is a scientific database that is used to evaluate the properties of elements and nuclear decay. Compared to other element isotopes, fermium has a relative short half-life lasting from just milliseconds to a few days. However, the 257-Fermium isotope has a half-life of 100.5 days.

Answer: Weapons development

"Operation Mandrel" was a series of nuclear tests conducted between 1969-70 by the United States government for various purposes. The "Hutch" test was conducted on July 16, 1969 and was conducted in an underground shaft for weapons related purposes. Other types of research conducted from these tests included safety experiments, peaceful research, and weapon effect.

Answer: Gabon

Oklo is a region that is found outside of the town of Franceville in the African nation of Gabon. In 1956, several uranium deposits were found in the region and were turned into mines. Uranium extracted from this region was heavily used for electricity production in France and other parts of Europe. Fermium was once found occurring naturally in a natural nuclear fission reactor in the Oklo region but, due to the short half-life of fermium isotopes, no longer exists.

Answer: They are all radioactive

Period 7 elements on the periodic table are all radioactive and harmful to humans if exposed for short or lengthy periods of time. Many of these elements are not naturally occurring, but some elements such as radium and uranium are mined around the world. Plutonium is the heaviest naturally occurring element in this group.

Answer: Tennessee

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a science and energy research laboratory belonging to the US Department of Energy. While it serves many purposes, three main missions of the laboratory are scientific discovery, clean energy, and security. They support these three missions in various areas of science and technology including operation of neutron sources, high performance computing, research of energy source materials, and nuclear fusion and fission technologies.

The laboratory was established in 1943 during the Second World War to research nuclear weapons. Both the X-10 Graphite Reactor and the Chicago Pile-1 Reactor were developed by the laboratory for experiments in plutonium and uranium as a part of the Manhattan Project. Following the war, there was no real need for nuclear weapons and projects were focused less on weaponry and more towards scientific research such as medical isotope research or heat and energy research. Since the 1990s, laboratory research has focused on the areas of chemical science, electron microscopy, nuclear medicine, physics, and population data collection.

Answer: Scientific research

Due to the fact that fermium can only be found in small quantities and has a very short half-life it is not used commercially. Its main purpose is served in research laboratories where fermium isotopes, their half-lives and their radioactivity are studied.