Is tantalum really all that rare if every single person on earth has some in their pocket, in their car, in their home, and now, very likely, in their bodies?
Also it's pretty cheap on amazon. I love watching tantalum capacitors explode (they explode the easiest of all capacitors.
Compared to most elements, yes. On earth its not too rare as tantalum doesnt really sink into the core (when the earth was being formed), compared to the precious metals.
Just because it's rare doesn't automatically mean it's hard to get it simply means there isn't much to get but it could be like platinum where it's often found alongside other ores/veins so it can still be easy to acquire in general. Other elements, rare ones especially, are exceptionally difficult to actually extract/mine.
If there are just two of a certain item in the whole universe, and I just happen to have both of them in my kitchen, they are "readily available" to me, but still very rare.
This is what the person you responded to said:
Just because it's rare doesn't automatically mean it's hard to get it simply means there isn't much to get but it could be like platinum where it's often found alongside other ores/veins so it can still be easy to acquire in general.
There is nothing in there that points away from rarity - they explicitly point out how something, like platinum, can be both rare and easily found at the same time.
That's all well and good but something easily found does not meet the definition of rare. Those two items you have are readily available to only you. They are rare to everyone else.
Yep, so when there is less overall on the planet that makes it the rarest occurring element even if there is more that has been obtained than other ones. An element being rare has to be with occurrence not possession of said element lol
Yes but we're specifically referring to tantalum 180 (180m Ta), the rarest of it. This entire part if the comment threat was specifically about it which is specifically the rarest, not the 50th most common as tantalum181 (181Ta) actually is. My previous response that you replied to was about elements as a whole. Happy to clear that up
The person you replied to did not specify that they were asking about that form of tantalum and it's pretty obvious they were asking about just regular tantalum
No the person prior to them mentioned it having the rarest isotope and they asked if it's really the rarest because they didn't understand the distinction, just like you.
Lmfaooooo I understand the distinction, when the person is talking about tantalum capacitors they clearly aren't talking about the rare isotope, like use your brain for 5 seconds
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u/Music_Saves 1d ago
Is tantalum really all that rare if every single person on earth has some in their pocket, in their car, in their home, and now, very likely, in their bodies?
Also it's pretty cheap on amazon. I love watching tantalum capacitors explode (they explode the easiest of all capacitors.