the.com/cesium
the metal so eager to react it explodes in water and runs the world's clocks.
means Cesium is a soft, silvery-gold alkali metal, one of the most reactive elements known, whose atomic vibrations define the modern second.
from From Latin 'caesius,' meaning bluish-gray or sky-blue — the color of two bright blue lines that appeared when chemists Robert Bunsen and Gustav Kirchhoff examined mineral water through their newly invented spectroscope in the 1860s, making cesium the first element discovered by spectral analysis. They named it for those telltale blue flames, even though the pure metal itself is golden.
- defines second
- One second equals 9,192,631,770 cesium oscillations
- melts in hand
- Liquid at just 28°C, near body heat
- violent swimmer
- Hits water and detonates instantly
- golden glow
- One of only three golden-hued metals
- atomic clocks
- Keeps GPS satellites accurate to nanoseconds
cesium-137 — radioactive isotope released in chernobyl 1986 and fukushima 2011 disasters
cesium clock — defines the second in si units; nist-f1 in boulder, colorado is the us standard
pollucite ore — primary cesium source mined in bernic lake, manitoba, canada