Element: Xenon
October 8th, 2015 By Len.C
The discovery of an unknown gas
On July 12th, 1898, Sir William Ramsay and Morris M. Travers, two scientist of University College London, were discovering two new elements; krypton and neon. When they fractionally distilled the liquid air from krypton into a liquid-air machine, some of the remaining stay and show a beautiful blue glow through the vacuum tube. This new gas is called Xenon.
What's a Xenon?
Xenu? No, not Lord Xenu. Xenon (Xe) is the 54th element of the periodic table. Xenon mean stranger or a foreign in Greek. Xenon also has an original name called Xenos. It is part of the noble gas family and a nonmetal. The atomic mass is 131.29 with 54 protons/electrons and 77 neutrons. Its boiling point reach up to -108.12C and melting point is 111.79C. On the normal phase, it remain as a gas.
Xenon Fact
- Did you know that we also breathe in xenon? Maybe. Only about 8.7x10^-6 are in the earth atmosphere.
- If you drain all the water from an olympic sized swimming pool, you'll have 2,500,000 liters of air. And if you able to capture all of the xenon in that volume of air, you will have 225 ml of xenon - enough to fill a cup. Mind blown!
- Xenon are colourless, odourless gas. Nontoxic.
- Can also used to treat cancer.
Advertisement
Work Cited
The Element Xenon. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 7, 2015, from
http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele054.html
Xenon Element Facts. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 8, 2015, from
http://www.chemicool.com/elements/xenon.html
Xenon. (n.d.).
Retrieved October 8, 2015, from