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submitted 2 weeks ago by xkcdbot@lemmy.world to c/xkcd@lemmy.world

xkcd #3200: Chemical Formula

Title text:

Some of the atoms in the molecule are very weakly bound.

Transcript:

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Source: https://xkcd.com/3200/

explainxkcd for #3200

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[-] AnarchoEngineer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago

I’m not a physicist, but even if Astatine is being produced in minute quantities by decay, a half life of 8hrs should probably put it lower on the numbers than Americium.

Americium is produced anywhere you have lots of free neutrons. This may be rare on earth outside of nuclear power plants and bomb test sites, but not necessarily rare in the universe. Especially since it has a half life of 432years, so unlike astatine it can actually accumulate a bit and not just decay immediately.

Astatine basically doesn’t exist. The total amount in the entirety of earth’s crust at any given time is estimated to be less than a gram.

So I feel like the amounts should be flipped or at the very least closer in orders of magnitude.

[-] stelelor@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

The formula starts with CH, which means the universe is organic.

[-] PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

I mean... there's a C-H bond in there somewhere.

[-] djehuti@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago

Indeed! Hello!

[-] palordrolap@fedia.io 2 points 2 weeks ago

There are exotic atoms in that chemical formula that aren't in the periodic table. Not even if you count the equivalent table of potential antimatter atoms.

Muonium is sure to exist in non-zero quantities at any one time, for example.

[-] Pyro@programming.dev 1 points 2 weeks ago

That's just impurities

[-] WR5@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

"Approximate chemical formula"

this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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