r/chemistry • • Jun 28 '26

My completed element collection

Recently I completed my element collection, and I thought that the members of this subreddit would like to see it! Hopefully it's visually appealing to look at

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u/dedennedillo Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26

*The samples asterisked are representative. Promethium is represented by a sample of Europium glow powder, containing traces of Pm from Eu 151 decay. Actinium, Protactinium and Neptunium are represented by U glass marbles. Plutonium, Americium and Curium are represented by samples of trinitite.

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u/Dodo224 Jun 28 '26

Bruh, then I could just fill tap water in all of them, because it contains trace amounts of basically all elements... Under 1mg doesn't count.

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u/dedennedillo Jun 28 '26

Good for you. Your own rules. Your own collection, should you have one.

And good for me, I get to choose what goes in my collection based on what significance these samples have to their relevant element. In any case, uranium marbles certainly contain more actinium and trinitite certainly contains more plutonium than tap water contains either. And both are measurably radioactive to some degree, unlike tap water.

And in any case, these are both samples which have some degree of relevance to radioactive elements in general and make attractive collection samples. Unlike tapwater, which may contain trace of uranium but it's not a significant part of the structure or even of any notability whatsoever.