ALL ABOUT: URANIUM!

Table of Contents:

1: General Idea: Page: 3
2: History: Page: 4
3: Uses: Page: 5
4: Glossary: Page: 6-7
5: Bibliography: Page: 8
1: General Idea:
The Basics:
-Atomic Number: 92
-Atomic Mass: 238 amu
-Symbol: U
-Number of Protons: 92
-Number of electrons: 92
-Number of neutrons: 146 -Uranium is one the densest materials known. (19 g/cm3) 1.6 times denser than lead. It also oxidizes at room temperature. If you grind it into a powder, Uranium will spontaneously combust in air at room temperature.

-Physical properties include: -it weighs 238 amu. -it is a solid at room temperature.
-Chemical properties include: -it oxidizes at room temperature. -it is radioactive

2: History:

Uranium was discovered in 1789 (almost 300 years ago) by a German chemist, M. S. Klaproth. It was named in honor of the planet Uranus, which had just been discovered only 8 years before. A French scientist, Henri Becquerel, discovered that uranium had a radioactive property in 1896. In 1938, Otto Hahn showed that if you bombard a uranium atom with a high speed neutron, it fissions into isotopes of smaller, lighter elements. When that atom fissions, it releases all of the energy holding it together. In 1939, it was suggested that when uranium nuclei are split from a neutron, other neutrons might be released to cause a self-sustaining fission reaction. This was confirmed by F. Joliot. In 1942, the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was achieved by Fermi and a team of scientists in a pile of 400 tons of graphite, 6 tons of uranium metal, and 58 tons of uranium oxide at the University of Chicago. It was tested to make a bomb in Alamogordo, New Mexico on July 16, 1945. It was put into action to end WWII on August 6, 1945 at Hiroshima.

3: Uses:
Uranium is the most efficient and most popular form of nuclear energy. Uranium is made into rods and is shown below.
4: Glossary:
A:
-Atomic Mass: the mass of an isotope of an element in atomic mass units.
-amu- Atomic Mass Units.
-Atomic number: number of protons in an atomic nucleus; it indicates the position of an element in the periodic table.
C:
-Chemical properties: a property or characteristic of a substance that is observed during a reaction in which the chemical composition or identity of the substance is changed.
-Combust: to burn.
E:
-Electron: A sub atomic particle with a negative charge and a very small mass.
F:
-Fission: the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into nuclei of lighter atoms, accompanied by the release of energy.
I:
-Isotope: any of two or more forms of a chemical element, having the same number of protons in the nucleus, or the same atomic number, but having different numbers of neutrons in the nucleus, or different atomic weights.
N:
-Neutron: a sub atomic particle having no charge, mass slightly greater than that of a proton.
-Nuclei: Plural for nucleus.

O: -Oxidize: to cover with a coating of oxide or rust.
P:
-Periodic