Actinium | Chemistry

St. Andrew’s College, Aurora, Ontario, Canada

Actinium: We selected the element actinium because Ac is the better part of our school acronym, SAC (St. Andrews College). Our Advanced Placement Chemistry class began with the idea that actinium is a radioactive element. It glows blue in the dark, and we’ve made our tile blue to reflect that. We realized it is element number 89, and it was discovered in 1899, coincidentally the same year our school was founded. We wanted to acknowledge that elements are born in stars and thus included a UV image of our sun. Mr. Jones, our teacher, is a fan of Sam Kean’s, “The Disappearing Spoon” and so we have hidden a spoon along with Waldo in this image!

Marke Jones, St. Andrew’s College, Aurora, Ontario, Canada

Atomic properties*

Name:

Actinium

Symbol:

Ac

Atomic number:

89

Atomic mass:

(227) amu

Melting point:

1050°C

Boiling point:

3198°C

Density:

10 g/cm³

Electronegativity:

1.1

# of Isotopes:

1

State:

Solid

Colour:

No data

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/