In reply to Eric Walker's message of Fri, 18 Dec 2015 12:08:49 -0600: Hi, [snip] >The mercury might have built up through a series of reactions along the >following lines: > >4He + 186W => 190Os - 1400 keV >4He + 190Os => 194Pt - 1500 keV >4He + 194Pt => 198Hg - 1400 keV > >Since these are all endothermic reactions, the only way for this to have >happened would be if the alphas had sufficient energy, which they would have, >according to the first set of reactions.
While theoretically possible, consider that, if you are lucky, 1 in 10000 alphas would produce a nuclear reaction. 186W is only 28% of W. The amount of 190Os produced would be completely swamped by the existing W atoms. The same story goes for 194Pt, and even worse for 198Hg. In short I suspect you would be lucky to produce even a single Hg atom by this method. I think you need to look for a more direct route that doesn't rely on a chain of rare events. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
