Atomic Weight of Naquadah

[Beatrice Otter]

Where in the hell are you pulling this SH&! from man... Your right about the atomic number corresponding to the number of protons but it also corresponds to the number of electrons in the neutral atom. Your statement about "the higher the atomic number is the more unstable and radioactive it is" is totally false. Get your facts strait! It's true that the some of the elements that have higher atomic numbers are unstable and some of them decay so rapidly that you could never see them. But the atomic number has nothing to do with the radioactivity. Check out Atomic Number 112 (Ununbium-277)... It consists of bombarded atoms of lead with ions of zinc. This produced an isotope with a half-life of about 0.24 milliseconds (0.00024 seconds). So before you go rambling on about crap because you watched some program on the Science channel go back to school and take a Chemistry class.

Okay, aside from the fact that the bit about higher-atomic-number elements having high radiation is what I learned in my Honors Chemistry class, the belief that my facts are inaccurate is no reason to be verbally abusive. A simple statement of fact would have sufficed. Besides, the whole point of me starting this thread was that I found that that part of what I had always been taught was inaccurate!

When you can discuss it calmly in a rational fashion without resorting to profanity and insult, I would love to have my theory corrected.

As to Uub, doesn't the fact that it has a half-life mean that it emits radiation (albeit for a very short time)? I thought half-life was the amount of time it took for half the atoms present to decay, which implies that at least some radiation is emitted. Am I right? And yes, I do know that there are many things in nature that are mildly radioactive; that's the whole point behind carbon-dating and most other chemical dating processes.

[IMForeman]

Where in the hell are you pulling this SH&! from man... Your right about the atomic number corresponding to the number of protons but it also corresponds to the number of electrons in the neutral atom. Your statement about "the higher the atomic number is the more unstable and radioactive it is" is totally false. Get your facts strait! It's true that the some of the elements that have higher atomic numbers are unstable and some of them decay so rapidly that you could never see them. But the atomic number has nothing to do with the radioactivity. Check out Atomic Number 112 (Ununbium-277)... It consists of bombarded atoms of lead with ions of zinc. This produced an isotope with a half-life of about 0.24 milliseconds (0.00024 seconds). So before you go rambling on about crap because you watched some program on the Science channel go back to school and take a Chemistry class.

Oh my God! It's Dr. McKay! Welcome to the board, Rodney!

There's a right way and a wrong way to do everything... and THAT was the wrong way.

-IMF

[dd78matt]

Exactly. Assuming that there ever was naq in our solar system, which, according to show canon, there is not, and assuming the Ancients were somehow able to mine every last gram of the stuff from Earth, more would have eventually made its way to the surface of planets from the crucible of Earth's core in the millions of years since the Ancients would have stopped mining it here. This very fact proves, to me, at least, that the Ancients are not native to Earth.

Actually, no. Now considering I have only had Basic Chemistry because I am only in highschool, I may not be correct, but just hear me out. Elements are only made during extreme condition when the elements smack together and become heaveir elements. These conditions are so harsh, that our core cannot reproduce them, thus our core cannot create heavier elements, let alone one as heavy as Naquadah(assuming it is an element at around 130).

Now just because there is none left, assuming it was hear in the first place, doesn't mean the Ancients aren't from Earth, based on their technology, they could have completely stripped earth of Naq, including the core, without leaving any marks. For all we know they could have remotely located it and then transported it to where it was needed. Or possibly they synthesized it, much like the Asgard synthesis their products.

Now let's not forget it is widly held that Naq was never on Earth, and people assume this means that the Ancients didn't evolve on Earth. Now who's to say to be capable of interstellar travel you have to use Naq? Perhaps the Ancients were exploring via ship, and then discovered Naq. OR perhaps they created the element artificially in labs. I don't believe it is to far fetched. Now none of these are canon, and there are other possibilities, but just think about it.

[Giantevilhead]

Exactly. Assuming that there ever was naq in our solar system, which, according to show canon, there is not, and assuming the Ancients were somehow able to mine every last gram of the stuff from Earth, more would have eventually made its way to the surface of planets from the crucible of Earth's core in the millions of years since the Ancients would have stopped mining it here. This very fact proves, to me, at least, that the Ancients are not native to Earth.

Or they never used any naquadah until they discovered it on other planets with their ships.

[Tok'Ra Hostess]

Elements are only made during extreme condition when the elements smack together and become heaveir elements. These conditions are so harsh, that our core cannot reproduce them, thus our core cannot create heavier elements, let alone one as heavy as Naquadah(assuming it is an element at around 130).

So you're saying that even if the element, naq did exist on Earth, that it was not "made in Earth" so to speak? Like a humongous asteroid strike?(<pondering....> possible, I suppose; just look at Sudbury, Canada)

OTOH, can an element exist in measurable quantities on a planet and not be affected by its planet's core, yet it can be mined with hand tools and forged in a mere furnace into such things as gates and ships?

Now let's not forget it is widly held that Naq was never on Earth, and people assume this means that the Ancients didn't evolve on Earth. Now who's to say to be capable of interstellar travel you have to use Naq? Perhaps the Ancients were explorinI'mg via ship, and then discovered Naq. OR perhaps they created the element artificially in labs. I don't believe it is to far fetched. Now none of these are canon, and there are other possibilities, but just think about it.

Well, that's another topic and I'd (rightly) get my fingers rapped for going off topic. I know there are threads out there argueing for and against Ancients originating on Earth.

[dd78matt]

So you're saying that even if the element, naq did exist on Earth, that it was not "made in Earth" so to speak? Like a humongous asteroid strike?(<pondering....> possible, I suppose; just look at Sudbury, Canada)

OTOH, can an element exist in measurable quantities on a planet and not be affected by its planet's core, yet it can be mined with hand tools and forged in a mere furnace into such things as gates and ships?

Sorta. Well, everything in the Universe was all compacted into an area of a very small volume, it exploded, spewing all of that matter everywhere, and in the process, creating heavier elements then hydrogen. This theory on how the Universe was created is the Big Bang Theory. That matter turned into planets, stars and everything we know to exist. Those stars had nuclear reactions creating even heavier elemnts (such as Naq). Some of them died, and spreading their matter out. So if there was Naq on Earth, it was on Earth since the beggining of time(or the time that the star that created Earth exploded). Earth didn't produce the Naq, if it was here. A star did, but since it was hear since the beggining, it is technically homogonous to Earth, but the reason, possibly, there is none left on Earth is because the Ancients used it all, or because there was none in the first place. And it isnt here still because the core cannot reproduce such conditions.

What you are thinking of, being reproduced by the Earth, are such compounds as diamonds and coal. Earth doesnt replenish elements though, because matter cannot be created or destroyed.

[mayorbill11]

Fat

[mayorbill11]

Fat.

--someone had to say it.

-IMF

I couldn't see the reply because the thread mode changed on me.

[TechnoWraith]

Not to the nay-sayer of the group here:

But don't all the elements on the periodic table have to naturally exist? Or be artificially synthesized? Naquadah, on a technicality, doesn't exist except within the Stargate universe. I, too, think it would be pretty cool to add Naquadah to the periodic table, but I don't think that would happen because it "doesn't exist" so to speak. But then again, we can always make a "Stargate Periodic Table of Elements" where can add whatever elements we want, including Naquadah and even Naquadria.

By the way, all this chemistry talk is making my head hurt....

[sparky]

So, do we think that naquadria is an isotope of naquadah or another element? Personally, I think the writers imply that naquadria is a derivative of naquadah like plutonium is of uranium... Remember in 'Chain Reaction'...

(Note: Season 4 spoiler)

...that Teal'c is required to get weapons grade naquadah. In the real world weapons grade uranium (U 235?) is an isotope of Uranium 238, or vice-versa. .

Also, just in case you were interested this web page (http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/AtWt/element.html) about really heavy atomic weights suggests the writers have been in a few chemistry classes. Element 130 is Untrinilium, which sounds familiar to trinium in the show, and element 140 is Unquadnilium which sounds familiar to naquadah. Maybe this means that naquadah is in the 140's as far as atomic numbers are concerned?

[Jarnin]

The reason there is no Naquadah in our solar system is due entirely to the mass of the star that created our solar system. See, about 5-10 billion years ago, there was this giant star that existed somewhere near here. When that star went supernova, it exploded creating a large cloud of gas and dust that eventually formed our sun and the planets of our solar system.
All elements in our solar system would have been made by that massive star, including the iron and carbon that makes up your body.

Since we know Naquadah doesn't exist naturally in our solar system, it means that the massive star that existed before Sol wasn't massive enough to fuse naquadah, thus we have no naturally occuring naquadah in our system.

However, there is a rather large (137km) asteroid floating around out there that was composed of 45% naquadah. With the need for naquadah to build BC-303s ("Enemy Mine"), you'd think they'd have gone out there and mined that rock already.

[Beatrice Otter]

Not to the nay-sayer of the group here:

But don't all the elements on the periodic table have to naturally exist? Or be artificially synthesized? Naquadah, on a technicality, doesn't exist except within the Stargate universe. I, too, think it would be pretty cool to add Naquadah to the periodic table, but I don't think that would happen because it "doesn't exist" so to speak. But then again, we can always make a "Stargate Periodic Table of Elements" where can add whatever elements we want, including Naquadah and even Naquadria.

By the way, all this chemistry talk is making my head hurt....

Um, yes, I believe we're all well aware of the fact that both Nq and Nr exist only within the Stargate universe and as such couldn't be added to the Periodic Table in RL. That's why it's being discussed in a Stargate forum .

[Beatrice Otter]

The reason there is no Naquadah in our solar system is due entirely to the mass of the star that created our solar system. See, about 5-10 billion years ago, there was this giant star that existed somewhere near here. When that star went supernova, it exploded creating a large cloud of gas and dust that eventually formed our sun and the planets of our solar system.
All elements in our solar system would have been made by that massive star, including the iron and carbon that makes up your body.

Since we know Naquadah doesn't exist naturally in our solar system, it means that the massive star that existed before Sol wasn't massive enough to fuse naquadah, thus we have no naturally occuring naquadah in our system.

However, there is a rather large (137km) asteroid floating around out there that was composed of 45% naquadah. With the need for naquadah to build BC-303s ("Enemy Mine"), you'd think they'd have gone out there and mined that rock already.

Huh? How do we know there's an asteroid like that out there?

[aAnubiSs]

Huh? How do we know there's an asteroid like that out there?

Did we skip Fail Safe in Seaon 5?

[sparky]

The fact that they haven't tried to mine it and what happens when you walk through the wrong side of a stargate are probably two of the biggest questions I'd like to have answered.