this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 138 points 1 year ago (4 children)

This doesn't work because it will also make hydrogen gas that will take up the air in the area you are in causing you to suffocate. I lost a very close friend to this please don't spread misinformation online.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's why I just buy Gadolinium and slice each atom in half!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Huh? Wouldn't that just give you two radioactive isotopes of germanium? (^(154)Gd/2 = ^(77)Ge > ^(76)Ge)

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

With the right equipment, you can capture the hydrogen and use it to power your hydrogen fuel cell car. So not only do you get free gold, you get free fuel for your car as well.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

You just have to go slowly and next to the window

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I think you'll lose like 5 grams from the protons, more cause you might have to remove a couple of neutrons?

[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

That's the fun part. If you take just one proton off, you'll often end up with some gold that just decays back into mercury in a few days. Sell it for a quick prank.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_gold

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

I'm a third generation proton plucker myself. Some day, my children's children's children may have a good laugh when they finish this bar.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you can find Hg 198 for sale actually. So if you're a morally pure alchemist you can make the stable isotope of gold

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

More like put em all together and get even more gold

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Anybody have advice for shoving a bunch of protons together? I keep trying but they always fly away from each other.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Put some sugar on a magnet, that always works

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Just a spoon full of strong force helps the proton stay down

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah just turn up the close nuclear forces a bit and they'll zoom right together

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

You have to hold them close for a little bit, and let those positrons vent away.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago

And all those alchemists were starting with lead. What idiots.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

0.995 kg of gold and 5g of protium

Actually less than that because only around 10% of the gold created this way (assuming a natural distribution of Hg isotopes) would be stable, so you'd get a bunch of β particles too. I don't even know how Au-201 would act, and it would comprise 30% of the output.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

21 minute half life beta decay back to mercury.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

half life beta

Half Life 3 confirmed alright

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

It's a welcome break from deep fried and cropped porn memes.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Not only that, but also extreme troll physics vibes. Just lacking magnets and tge question how they work.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How many atoms does 1kg of mercury have?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

30x10^23 atoms according to my calculations.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

So basically if you handle 1M atoms per second, it would take 95B years to process 1kg...

It's really hard to grasp those scales

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

3.0022×10^24 atoms, to be precise.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a troll - everyone knows if you transform Hg202 into Au201, it will immediately decay back into Hg201 while releasing about 606MJ of energy in the process.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

He converted lead into gold and Euros into dollars.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (8 children)

wait how has noone thought of this?

[–] [email protected] 69 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I think there were some folks who thought about splitting the atom right? I forget who.

Anyway, now I am become wealth, buyer of worlds.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What do you mean "no one". There is a wikihow guide on this: https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Gold-from-Mercury

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Seems easy enough. Off to the nuclear reactor store to get started.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aw man, all we have near us is IKEA.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Step two is fiddly

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This was the idea by alchemy. They thought you could change one element into another. Lead to gold and so forth, but not so easy in medieval Europe

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah they didn't have tweezers back then

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Don't be daft, of course they have tweezers back then.

They don't have plastic yet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

But eletricity didnt exist at the time, so no risk of being electrocuted.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you can make gold from platinum! however this is a net loss as platinum costs more

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

You can make gold from hydrogen too! Just gotta put enough of it into one place so it forms a large star, then wait for it to go supernova.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Step 2 is expensive :( tweezers ain't cheap!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah but it would cost more and take an exorbitant amount of time (like billions of years) to produce anything of value, let alone profit.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Has that ever worked with mercury? I know I lt worked in a very small number of atoms (about 200) for lead and gold

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I love that the face is actually mirrored. 10/10

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Dollar dollar bill y'all, get the money

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Fake. The resulting Au201 and Au199 will promptly turn back into mercury. But, if you instead pull of a few neutrons to make Hg197, it will decay in a few days to stable Au197, along with a free neutrino.

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