Radium | Chemistry

Whitehall High School, Whitehall, Michigan, U.S.A.

Radium, 88, Whitehall High School, Michigan USA

Radium: The Whitehall High School chemistry classes created 112 tiles representing elements on the periodic table. At the start of 2011, we plan to display our periodic table in the school building in honor of the International Year of Chemistry. Many students also created a tile representing radium in hopes of having their tile picked to be submitted here. We watched the Oscar Nominated film, Madame Curie, as part of our study of the periodic table before students created their tiles. Jacob Raymond’s tile was chosen. He used colored pencils to create the tile. He shows Marie Curie, who isolated radium, with the help of her husband, Pierre. She is surrounded by green circles, representing the fact that radium was used in paint for glow in the dark watch faces. Radium was isolated in 1898. The silver/grey background is the color of radium. A cancer ribbon is shown because of the dual nature of radium causing cancer, yet also contributing to cancer treatments.

Deanna Cullen, Whitehall High School, Whitehall, Michigan U.S.A.

Atomic properties*

Name:

Radium

Symbol:

Atomic number:

Atomic mass:

(226) amu

Melting point:

696ºC

Boiling point:

No data

Density:

No data

Electronegativity:

0.9

# of Isotopes:

State:

Solid

Colour:

Brilliant-white

Classification:

Metallic**

* Haynes, W. M. (2011). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 91st edition: http://www.hbcponline.com/ Retrieved April 7, 2011

** Winter, M. (2010). Home of the Periodic Table. Retrieved April 8, 2011, from Web Elements: http://www.webelements.com/