Quote:
Originally Posted by mbyron
What's the lightest naturally occurring radioactive element? Its name does not have a Latin root.
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Hydrogen, or more specifically, Tritium,
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I guessed the information above, but wasn't sure if Tritium occurred naturally, so I had to look up this part: Tritium occurs naturally due to cosmic rays interacting with atmospheric gases. In the most important reaction for natural tritium production, a fast neutron (which must have energy greater than 4 MeV) interacts with atmospheric nitrogen: 147N + n → 126C + 31T
And I wasn't sure about it's non-Latin root, so I also looked up this part: French hydrogène : Greek hudro-, hydro- + French -gène, -gen.
Did I win? Do I get to pick a prize from the top shelf?