"...Can you name the six noble gases?"
As this could be no poser for an economic geographer, I rattled them off in their proper aristocratic order. "Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and -er- Radon. They were raised to the peerage in the eleventh year of England's George Fifth, and Neon was awarded the Order of the Seraphim by Gustav Sixth of Sweden for its compassionate service in guiding to bars and beaneries guys who roll into towns late at night."
-- from The Moon's Fire-eating Daughter by John Myers Myers
I used that as an opening quote (I can't remember the term for that-- "epigram" doesn't seem quite right) for my Ph.D. thesis on Ultra-Cold Ionizing Collisions in Metastable Xenon. That should tell you my answer to this Dorky Poll question: What's your favorite noble gas?
I know they're all nice, but you can only pick one.
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I had to go with Xenon cause it's a cool name. Krypton was close, but any element named after Superboy's pet slips a bit....
Xenon is so much more fun than any of the others - not only will it knock you out surprisingly effectively, but it also has many strange and wonderful compounds, some of which explode...
Argh! I should've gone with Krypton, to give it a vote! I was tied between argon (because it's everywhere, can be used for those highly important inert atmospheres, and sounds like a pirate) and krypton (because I, unlike Pineyman, think Superman is cool)...
Epigraph.
My Ph.D. thesis was about some properties of solid neon and solid argon, so the noble gases have a special place in my heart. I got better data with argon, but neon was so much nicer to work with, so neon it is. Neon is also a great exchange gas for reaching liquid nitrogen temperatures without confusing a leak detector.
Helium is of course by far the most useful noble gas, but as a low-temperature physicist who wasn't studying the properties of helium I'm sort of unmoved by helium.
My favorite high-school educational science film had one scene where the host had balloons filled with each (non-radioactive) noble gas: the helium balloon shot up, as normal; the neon balloon drifted gently up, and the xenon balloon dropped like a rock.
Argon is the best gas for keeping an inert reaction atmosphere, much better than N2, because as it's heavier than air, you're allowed a little wiggle room if you have to open your flask to add some solids.
Ditto no.6. Great for glove boxes.
Helium FTW. What other noble gas is going to help launch an 8000-lb telescope to the edge of the atmosphere?
Then again, I really prefer my helium in liquid form...
I voted for Neon because it is so pretty! Most of LA would be dull and drab without neon signs.
i voted radon, cause, hey, it's radioactive! plus, people should be aware of it's status as a health hazard.
If radioactivity is attractive, shouldn't you be choosing Ununoctium?
Helium, because I never pass up an opportunity to explain to students that helium is called HELIUM because it was discovered ON THE SUN before we knew it existed on Earth. Somehow they all make it to college without learning this fact!
Argon. Because you know what a pirate's favorite element is? Aaarrrgon!!!
Helium, because I like fusion. It powers all my stuff (ultimately).
BTW, the word for the opening quotation is "epigraph."
As a physicist, helium. Even though it has one electron too many.
Yeah, I have to go with the element discovered by remote sensing, helium. Also liquid helium is fun to transfer, and even to measure how much you have left.
And the story of the first liquefaction of helium, in 1908, is a ripping yarn. The race was between James Dewar of the Royal Institution, who ran his lab the old-fashioned way, as a fiefdom; and Heike Kamerlingh Onnes of Leiden, who ran his the modern way, as a team.
After repeated failures to liquefy helium (punctuated by laboratory accidents that severely injured lab workers), Dewar published a paper detailing his failed efforts, and concluding that helium could not be liquefied. There was an asterisk on this conclusion, which led to a footnote added in press, stating that H. Kamerlingh Onnes had announced the liquefaction of helium. So the old world falls to the new.
Why is there an option to complain about the poll? And why would anyone vote for that? Or is that for Pharyngulites?