• Question: If you found a new element, what would you name it? :)

    Asked by hollyunsaturatedfats to Ben, Jony, Katharine, Mark, Peter on 16 Nov 2011.
    • Photo: Katharine Schofield

      Katharine Schofield answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      I think there’s a rule that you can’t call a new element after yourself. I would have to see what sort of properties it had and then decide. Owlium?

      There is a committee called IUPAC (Interantional Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) that decides whether there is enough evidence to say a new element has been discovered or not. There were a couple of new elements added to the periodic table in June (one has 114 protons in the nucleus, the other has 116) which haven’t been named yet. What would you call them?

    • Photo: Ben Still

      Ben Still answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Unobtanium – heard the name used in the film Avatar and laughed so hard because it is so cheesy.

    • Photo: Jony Hudson

      Jony Hudson answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Nice question!

      Stuff the rules – if I discover an element I’m calling it jonium.

    • Photo: Mark Basham

      Mark Basham answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      Don’t know about an element, But I promised one of my house-mates at uni that it I ever discoved a particle I would call it a Laleton after their nickname.

    • Photo: Peter Williams

      Peter Williams answered on 16 Nov 2011:

      obtainium 🙂

      it’s a physics inside joke. google “unobtainium”

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