Helium

[YT2095]

I just never knew that they named the gases after Alfred Nobel. (I know they are called Noble because of their refusal to react, but Nobel just doesn't seem right).

 

it doesn`t hurt to flirt with mispellings when googling, it often presents sites and info that wouldn`t otherwise be known of, there`s a good 30,000+ with Nobel spelling even though the Correct (according to my books) is Noble also.

 

I think the funniest thing about it is that with the Nobel spelling, the 1`st hit in google is actualy a Dictionary!!!!!

[jdurg]

Heh. Well I shortly came upon this link here which also mentions the Nobel/Noble spelling issue.

[EvoN1020v]

Ok Ok guys!! Let me clarify the statement from the book again. The book is entitled, "100 things you should know about SCIENCE", by Steve Parker with Consultant: Peter Riley. Miles Kelly Publishing Co. On page 39, a sub title said "Atoms of the various elements have different numbers of protons and neutrons." Then it said, "An atom of hydrogen has just one proton. An atom of helum, the gas put in party balloons to make them float, has one proton and one neutron. An atom of the heavy metal called lead has 82 protons and neutrons."

 

Hope this helps your discussion abit. What do you think?

[greg1917]

There isnt really much of a discussion - the book is flat out wrong. An atom with 1 proton and 1 neutron is a hydrogen isotope, deuterium.

 

Helium usually contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons - this isotope constitutes more than 99.99% of helium found on Earth, with the remaining small amount mainly a lighter isotope with only one neutron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3 ).

[[Tycho?]]

Ok Ok guys!! Let me clarify the statement from the book again. The book is entitled' date=' "100 things you should know about SCIENCE", by Steve Parker with Consultant: Peter Riley. Miles Kelly Publishing Co. On page 39, a sub title said "[b']Atoms of the various elements have different numbers of protons and neutrons." [/b]Then it said, "An atom of hydrogen has just one proton. An atom of helum, the gas put in party balloons to make them float, has one proton and one neutron. An atom of the heavy metal called lead has 82 protons and neutrons."

 

Hope this helps your discussion abit. What do you think?

 

 

The book is wrong. Helium has two protons. Look it up on any site on the net if you feel the need to.

[EvoN1020v]

Helium usually contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons - this isotope constitutes more than 99.99% of helium found on Earth' date=' with the remaining small amount mainly a lighter isotope with only one neutron ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3 ).[/quote']

 

I researched "Helium" on the wikipedia website, and there seems to be 4 different isotopes of helium? Which one is the "normal" helium?

[jdurg]

Yeah, I truly think that by reading that book you will become more and more clueless in the field of chemistry. Lead does indeed have 82 protons, but to say it has 82 protons and neutrons is incorrect no matter how your read it. Lead has FAAAAAAAAAAAAAR more than 82 neutrons in it. Pb-164 simply does not exist just as Pb-82 doesn't exist.

 

Helium-4 is the isotope that we typically encounter.

[silkworm]

What sort of action can be taken against books like this, I wonder. Can we sue them? Sue them for punitive damages for making society even more stupid. Does this thing have a disclaimer or anything explaining that it might not know what it is talking about? Does the book say anything else about chemistry, EvoN1020v?

[swansont]

I researched "Helium" on the wikipedia website, and there seems to be 4 different isotopes of helium? Which one is the "normal" helium?

 

 

He-4 comprises 99.999863% of Helium. The remainder is He-3. Other isotopes might be created in colliders, but will be radioactive and decay after a short time.

[stsanthony]

actually, the ones calculating the relative atomic mass of helium can actually ignore the mass and intensity of the other three isotopes...

[EvoN1020v]

What sort of action can be taken against books like this, I wonder. Can we sue them? Sue them for punitive damages for making society even more stupid. Does this thing have a disclaimer or anything explaining that it might not know what it is talking about? Does the book say anything else about chemistry, EvoN1020v?

 

Yes there are 4 pages talking about chemistry (2 pages on the periodic table, and 2 pages on the properties of an atom). They seemed all right with me, until I encountered the helium problem. Relative to silkworm's post, is there any legal action that I can sue the company for input wrongful information?

 

Thanks.

[woelen]

Why sue them? It is better to kindly notify them about the wrong information, that is a little less agressive. If you have a mail address or postal address you could drop a mail message and tell them about the errors.

 

You see, people make errors and as long as people are willing to learn there should not be too much of a problem .

[EvoN1020v]

Yeah I agree. I'm not that agressive person or anything like that. I will try to find the address in the book if I can find it. I was just posting the helium problem on the forums because I knew it was wrong, and I got my confirmation. So guys thanks once again.

[silkworm]

woelen, that is very basic chemistry, not the cutting edge of new research where it's expected refining will need to take place. Writing this book and claiming you know it is the same as medical malpractice. For it's readers who hadn't already known better that is their reality, and will cause a small domino effect contaminating even more people. This sort of thing happens too much. I'm sorry it is an incredible pet peeve of mine, but only because it's so destructive. Sue them and put these irresponsible bastards out of business.

[aj47]

woelen, that is very basic chemistry, not the cutting edge of new research where it's expected refining will need to take place. Writing this book and claiming you know it is the same as medical malpractice. For it's readers who hadn't already known better that is their reality, and will cause a small domino effect contaminating even more people. This sort of thing happens too much. I'm sorry it is an incredible pet peeve of mine, but only because it's so destructive. Sue them and put these irresponsible bastards out of business.

 

I agree, some of my texts have some of the most blatent mistakes. It drives me crazy when I do a question giving an answer which according to the text its wrong causing me to spend hours rereading the text to find out where my mistake occured.

 

Why don't we just lynch them all

[woelen]

woelen, that is very basic chemistry, not the cutting edge of new research where it's expected refining will need to take place. Writing this book and claiming you know it is the same as medical malpractice. For it's readers who hadn't already known better that is their reality, and will cause a small domino effect contaminating even more people. This sort of thing happens too much. I'm sorry it is an incredible pet peeve of mine, but only because it's so destructive. Sue them and put these irresponsible bastards out of business.

Well, that is your opinion. Of course it is not bleeding edge technology or state of the art research we are taling about, but still, I hate the culture of sueing people for everything. That culture destroys societies in the long run if it is extended for long enough time. For the same reason companies hardly want to sell chems to the general public anymore, because if some fool does foolish things with them, the company gets sued and is out of business. If we continue with this, then after 20 years no one dares to write a web site or dares to publish a book, because of possible errors. No, kindly tell them about their mistakes and only if no action is taken AFTER telling them about their mistakes, consider sueing them.

Sometimes I'm glad that I do not live in the USA, over here fortunately we do not (yet) have such a sueing and claiming culture .

 

For the same reason we must be so careful with a site like this. There could be told much more and there is a lot of fun, but I simply do not post all of that over here, because it may bring SFN in trouble. The same is true for posting sources of chemicals over here. Again, if some fool uses that info in a wrong way, SFN may get in trouble.

 

Is that what you want?

[insane_alien]

I have to laugh at the sueing culture in america. when i went on holiday to florida i slipped in some big shopping center (mall) and the staff actually offered me money to not sue. i had no intention of sueing as i knew it was my own damned fault.

I think this is just a small mistake that an editor missed. it happens. just write to them informing them of the mistake.

[akcapr]

Did you take the money? you better have

[EvoN1020v]

The suing situation is a corruption of the Americans, in my opinion. I mean, suing a company or a victim for million of dollars? That's not a professional way of dealing to fix a problem. God wishes us to help other people so they won't repeat the mistake. I will just send in a letter to inform them of the tiny mistake, ok? I'm a proud Canadian and I'm not interested in money.

[swansont]

Yes there are 4 pages talking about chemistry (2 pages on the periodic table' date=' and 2 pages on the properties of an atom). They seemed all right with me, until I encountered the helium problem. Relative to [b']silkworm's[/b] post, is there any legal action that I can sue the company for input wrongful information?

 

Thanks.

 

 

Were you damaged by the incorrect information? They got a fact wrong, out of 100. Ask the publisher for 1% of the purchase price back. Then donate it to SFN, because we set you straight.

[nccavediver]

Moving in a different direction, I would be interested to hear everyone's guesses as to when (or if) we will run out of helium. Or, do you think we will go get some more before we run out (like from the moon, Uranus or Saturn)???

 

I am particularly interested because I use it for deep diving. If we run out, we will not be able to do the deep dives we are doing while keeping a clear head. Little is known about the physiological effects when using substitutes, such as hydrogen (which has already been used for exteme-depth diving).

 

Cheers, Jordan

[EvoN1020v]

Again the book is a book for children, so I assume it cost around 20 bucks, so if swansont said I should get 1% back, that will be only 20 cents!! Hahaa, not worth the suing.

[silkworm]

I'm a proud Canadian and I'm not interested in money.

 

Who said anything about money? Sue them to make them recall their books from their shelves and correct their mistake. If it breaks them, it breaks them. If they don't have the capability to catch a mistake like that they should not be printing books. They're a publisher, and they won't do anything if you tell them about the mistake because I'm certain they already know about it. They need to take responsibility for it as do all publishers when they make these mistakes.

 

That culture destroys societies in the long run if it is extended for long enough time.

 

Could you give me an example?

 

If we continue with this, then after 20 years no one dares to write a web site or dares to publish a book, because of possible errors.

 

Oh, you can't stop books and websites from popping up, but would it be a bad thing if their publishers were more responsible with their content?

 

The suing situation is a corruption of the Americans, in my opinion. I mean, suing a company or a victim for million of dollars?

 

You guys have universal health care, so not everyone is tying to poison you regularly. Trying to stay healthy in America makes you blood thirsty after awhile. And while I do agree there are unnecessary lawsuits filed, you have to admit the Merck deserves what they get because they knew about Vioxx (although the FDA needs to be made competent again, but we're going to have to wait for 2009 for a chance at that). I wouldn't expect you getting millions of dollars from the publisher, nor do you deserve it, but you should sue them to force them to take responsibilty and protect others. This is misinformation over very basic chemistry presented as fact. Who knows what else they screwed up in that book? Was it written by Kevin Trudeau? If we don't protect the public from this, who will?

[jdurg]

Moving in a different direction' date=' I would be interested to hear everyone's guesses as to when (or if) we will run out of helium. Or, do you think we will go get some more before we run out (like from the moon, Uranus or Saturn)???

 

I am particularly interested because I use it for deep diving. If we run out, we will not be able to do the deep dives we are doing while keeping a clear head. Little is known about the physiological effects when using substitutes, such as hydrogen (which has already been used for exteme-depth diving).

 

Cheers, Jordan[/quote']

 

Our supplies of helium are virtually unlimited. As long as there are radioactive substances underneath the earth, and as long as nuclear power plants and reprocessing plants are in operation, we will have helium. Virtually all of the helium we have on this earth comes from the alpha decay of radioactive substances. (An alpha particle is simply just a bare helium nucleus). Due to all of the alpha emitters present in the ground, there is a constant outpouring of helium into subterranean wells and in any place where a lot of radioactive material is stored. So to put it mildly, don't worry.

[jdurg]

Who said anything about money? Sue them to make them recall their books from their shelves and correct their mistake. If it breaks them' date=' it breaks them. If they don't have the capability to catch a mistake like that they should not be printing books. They're a publisher, and they won't do anything if you tell them about the mistake because I'm certain they already know about it. They need to take responsibility for it as do all publishers when they make these mistakes.

 

 

 

Could you give me an example?

 

 

 

Oh, you can't stop books and websites from popping up, but would it be a bad thing if their publishers were more responsible with their content?

 

 

 

You guys have universal health care, so not everyone is tying to poison you regularly. Trying to stay healthy in America makes you blood thirsty after awhile. And while I do agree there are unnecessary lawsuits filed, you have to admit the Merck deserves what they get because they knew about Vioxx (although the FDA needs to be made competent again, but we're going to have to wait for 2009 for a chance at that). I wouldn't expect you getting millions of dollars from the publisher, nor do you deserve it, but you should sue them to force them to take responsibilty and protect others. This is misinformation over very basic chemistry presented as fact. Who knows what else they screwed up in that book? Was it written by Kevin Trudeau? If we don't protect the public from this, who will?[/quote']

 

And our winner for the overreaction of the year award is................ A lawsuit is only valid if there is conclusive proof that a law was broken, or that there was negligence which resulted in the injury to others. NOTHING about that typo fits under those categories; NOTHING. There is nothing you can say that would hold up in a court of law. No matter how sue happy this country is, the lawyers are smart enough to see what's a dumb, retarded, pointless waste of time and suing over a misprint in a book is one of them. There is no legal ground to file a lawsuit over this one.