[mike]

I just got back from a quiz where the three last "jackpot" questions included one on chemistry. Of course the entire team turned to me expecting me to know the answer. What is the name of the element with the chemical symbol Ds? I did not know!! How embarrassing the one time a jackpot question is my "specialty" subject and I didn't get it. But seriously don't you think this is a hard question for a general quiz?

[P]

It's not on my periodic Table yet because it's a relatively new element 110. Darmstadtium  Ds.


http://www.iupac.org/reports/provisional/abstract03/Corish_pr110.pdf

[Mitch]

I would of nailed that one.

Although, I don't know if it could be considered a chemical element since it has never been studied chemically, but thats an other matter.

[wereworm73]

It should be interesting to see the half-life of Ds-288 (or isotopes near that mass).  There seems to be some relative stability with every 10th element (they tend to either have more stable isotopes or at least longer-lasting radioisotopes than the nearby elements).  Also, that sea of instability starting after bismuth abruptly ends at thorium (element 90), and fermium (element 100) is the last element known to have an isotope with a half-life of at least 100 days.  So maybe having an atomic number of 110 would lend some stability to darmstadtium.  I even read a prediction somewhere that the most stable darmstadtium isotope may have a half-life of millions of years (though I have a hunch it would just be a few hours to a few days, but still noticably more stable than what we've seen so far with superheavy elements).

Maybe Mitch will be among the first to find out.

[mike]

I would of nailed that one.

Yes I was actually thinking that at the time: "If only Mitch were here I bet he would know"

It was a hard question in my opinion. At the end of the quiz they basically ask three difficult questions and anyone who gets all three gets the jackpot which is about $500 I think. The other questions were hard too:

Which horse won the melbourne cup in 1968 and 1969?

What was the bridal waltz played at Lleyton Hewit and Bec Cartwrights wedding?

Haha, but these are kind of Australian questions...