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THE BASICS My atomic number is eighty-eight. I am the heaviest element in my family, with an atomic mass of 226.025. My most commonly used nickname is Ra. I'm very even-headed. My melting point is all the way up at 1300 degrees F. and I don't boil over until 3159 degrees.
About Me! About Me! ABOUT M
I glow in the dark! Because of this, I was used on the hands and numbers of clocks, until I started giving people cancer.
Charictoristics of Me! I have a very radioactive personality. In fact I'm over a million times as radioactive as uranium! The Curies' notes are still too radioactive to touch today. I'm also extemely pale, a very pretty shade of silvery-white, so I tan really quickly. If I come in contact with air I tarnish to black! Some people say I'm pretty dense. But my density is only 5.5 grams/cubic cm. I don't think that's all THAT dense!
Despite my awesome personality, I'm extremely rare. There are only about .0000001 parts per million of me in the earth. That's one ten-millionth!
Radioactivity is the emission of energy as particles in the form of rays or waves
I decay into radon very slowly. My type of decay is called alpha decay. Basically, an alpha particle, 2 protons and 2 neutrons, is released from my nucleus, turning me into radon. Radon decays a lot quicker. My half- life is about 1600 years!
A half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of me to decay. So for example, if there were 20 atoms, then after 1600 years there will be 10 atoms. And after another 1600 years there will be 5 atoms.
I was named Radium for my intense radiation!
