Talk:3037: Radon - Revision history

42.book.addict at 18:31, 27 February 2026

2026-02-27T18:31:00Z

Rexon Mobile: Outcome of Wikipedia error found through this comic

2026-02-27T11:47:49Z

Outcome of Wikipedia error found through this comic

82.132.244.228 at 05:18, 27 August 2025

2025-08-27T05:18:23Z

Me a meep sheep at 00:49, 27 August 2025

2025-08-27T00:49:44Z

172.70.163.111 at 09:15, 16 January 2025

2025-01-16T09:15:21Z

141.101.98.172 at 21:08, 15 January 2025

2025-01-15T21:08:53Z

Awesome person: free edit zone

2025-01-15T20:47:25Z

free edit zone

172.70.127.191 at 20:35, 14 January 2025

2025-01-14T20:35:29Z

Rexon Mobile: /* Radon and Radium spectral lines */ new section

2025-01-14T17:03:31Z

‎Radon and Radium spectral lines: new section

Kynde at 12:22, 14 January 2025

2025-01-14T12:22:44Z

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <!--Please sign your posts with ~~~~ and don't delete this text. New comments should be added at the bottom.-->
 The sun is a white star. It looks yellow from within the atmosphere because blue light is scattered out of it, the same reason the sky is blue. How did physicist Randall not know that? [[User:Nitpicking|Nitpicking]] ([[User talk:Nitpicking|talk]]) 20:26, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
 :Randall is almost certainly a Superman fan, and we all know that Kryptonians get their powers from yellow suns. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:07, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
@@ Line 17: / Line 16: @@
 :The rewrite has waaaaay too much detail. This site is for explaining what's going on in a comic, not repeating everything you know that's related, however remotely, to the comic. Just add wikilinks to things! Like, do we really need to have repeated here how much <sup>238</sup>U the Earth contains? How much radiation one experiences from uranium? I vote to remove a lot of the detail and just explain the comic. [[User:DKMell|DKMell]] ([[User talk:DKMell|talk]]) 23:45, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
-Possible trivia: 238 Umbrella is a common weight for a patio umbrella stand. {{unsigned|TallJason|22:53, 13 January 2025}}
+Possible trivia: 238 Umbrella is a common weight for a patio umbrella stand. {{unsigned|TallJason|22:53, 13 January 2025 (UTC)}}
 I started to write another paragraph:
@@ Line 63: / Line 62: @@
 This is absolutely false. Radon and its daughter products are dangerous to humans precisely because of the ionizing radiation they emit, which has a tendency to produce lung cancer when decay occurs within the lungs (in the inhaled air for radon itself, or attached to floating dust particles for daughter isotopes). Radon itself isn't poisonous in a chemical sense at all -- as a noble gas, it doesn't react with other substances under normal conditions. Some of the daughter products ''are'' chemically poisonous, but are still far more dangerous for their radioactivity than for their chemical properties (e.g., lead-214 is far more dangerous than a similar quantity of any of the stable lead isotopes (206, 207, and 208)).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.191|172.70.127.191]] 20:35, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
-I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things. {{unsigned|Awesome person|20:47, 15 January 2025}}
+I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things. {{unsigned|Awesome person|20:47, 15 January 2025 (UTC)}}
-mēëêèép {{unsigned|Me a meep sheep|00:49, 27 August 2025}}
+mēëêèép {{unsigned|Me a meep sheep|00:49, 27 August 2025 (UTC)}}
-=== Error on Wikipedia ===
+;Error on Wikipedia
 This comic sparked a tangentially related discussion at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemistry/Archive_56#Radon_and_Radium_spectral_lines Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry#Radon and Radium spectral lines], leading to the discovery that the spectra given on Wikipedia for multiple chemical elements (including Radon) had been wrong since 2013 -- the result of a bug in a 15-year-old Matlab plugin. [[User:Rexon Mobile|Rexon Mobile]] ([[User talk:Rexon Mobile|talk]]) 17:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
 :After about a year, the table of spectral lines in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_line has now been repaired and fully restored.[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spectral_line&diff=1340747152&oldid=1340660204] [[User:Rexon Mobile|Rexon Mobile]] ([[User talk:Rexon Mobile|talk]]) 11:47, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 "This process will render the Earth uninhabitable for humans within approximately 5 billion years." That seems very optimistic. Isn't it more like 1 billion years? --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 10:05, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
 :Yes the Earth will become uninhabitable in close to but less than a billion years. But not because the sun is expanding at the end of it's life. But because it gets hotter and begins to strip the Earths atmosphere, and this also means the end of the oceans. When they are gone, complicated life forms should not be possible. Bacteria could live until the sun possibly engulfs the Earth (it is not certain if this will happen though.) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:22, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
 I'm removing th[e] paragraph [on radiation dose] entirely, since it's wildly incorrect and adding negative value; I may or may not have time to add a more accurate discussion later, if someone else hasn't done so first:
@@ Line 69: / Line 67: @@
 mēëêèép {{unsigned|Me a meep sheep|00:49, 27 August 2025}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 05:18, 27 August 2025
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−	mēëêèép	+	mēëêèép {{unsigned\|Me a meep sheep\|00:49, 27 August 2025}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:49, 27 August 2025
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	I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things. {{unsigned\|Awesome person\|20:47, 15 January 2025}}		I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things. {{unsigned\|Awesome person\|20:47, 15 January 2025}}
		+
		+
		+	mēëêèép

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 "This process will render the Earth uninhabitable for humans within approximately 5 billion years." That seems very optimistic. Isn't it more like 1 billion years? --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 10:05, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
 :Yes the Earth will become uninhabitable in close to but less than a billion years. But not because the sun is expanding at the end of it's life. But because it gets hotter and begins to strip the Earths atmosphere, and this also means the end of the oceans. When they are gone, complicated life forms should not be possible. Bacteria could live until the sun possibly engulfs the Earth (it is not certain if this will happen though.) --[[User:Kynde|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde|talk]]) 12:22, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
 This comic sparked a tangentially related discussion at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemistry#Radon_and_Radium_spectral_lines Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry#Radon and Radium spectral lines], leading to the discovery that the spectra given on Wikipedia for multiple chemical elements (including Radon) had been wrong since 2013 -- the result of a bug in a 15-year-old Matlab plugin. [[User:Rexon Mobile|Rexon Mobile]] ([[User talk:Rexon Mobile|talk]]) 17:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
-== Radiation dose ==
+I'm removing th[e] paragraph [on radiation dose] entirely, since it's wildly incorrect and adding negative value; I may or may not have time to add a more accurate discussion later, if someone else hasn't done so first:
 <blockquote>The actual amount of uranium experienced</blockquote>

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:08, 15 January 2025
Line 69:		Line 69:
	This is absolutely false. Radon and its daughter products are dangerous to humans precisely because of the ionizing radiation they emit, which has a tendency to produce lung cancer when decay occurs within the lungs (in the inhaled air for radon itself, or attached to floating dust particles for daughter isotopes). Radon itself isn't poisonous in a chemical sense at all -- as a noble gas, it doesn't react with other substances under normal conditions. Some of the daughter products ''are'' chemically poisonous, but are still far more dangerous for their radioactivity than for their chemical properties (e.g., lead-214 is far more dangerous than a similar quantity of any of the stable lead isotopes (206, 207, and 208)).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.191\|172.70.127.191]] 20:35, 14 January 2025 (UTC)		This is absolutely false. Radon and its daughter products are dangerous to humans precisely because of the ionizing radiation they emit, which has a tendency to produce lung cancer when decay occurs within the lungs (in the inhaled air for radon itself, or attached to floating dust particles for daughter isotopes). Radon itself isn't poisonous in a chemical sense at all -- as a noble gas, it doesn't react with other substances under normal conditions. Some of the daughter products ''are'' chemically poisonous, but are still far more dangerous for their radioactivity than for their chemical properties (e.g., lead-214 is far more dangerous than a similar quantity of any of the stable lead isotopes (206, 207, and 208)).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.191\|172.70.127.191]] 20:35, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

−	I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things.	+	I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things. {{unsigned\|Awesome person\|20:47, 15 January 2025}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:47, 15 January 2025
Line 68:		Line 68:

	This is absolutely false. Radon and its daughter products are dangerous to humans precisely because of the ionizing radiation they emit, which has a tendency to produce lung cancer when decay occurs within the lungs (in the inhaled air for radon itself, or attached to floating dust particles for daughter isotopes). Radon itself isn't poisonous in a chemical sense at all -- as a noble gas, it doesn't react with other substances under normal conditions. Some of the daughter products ''are'' chemically poisonous, but are still far more dangerous for their radioactivity than for their chemical properties (e.g., lead-214 is far more dangerous than a similar quantity of any of the stable lead isotopes (206, 207, and 208)).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.191\|172.70.127.191]] 20:35, 14 January 2025 (UTC)		This is absolutely false. Radon and its daughter products are dangerous to humans precisely because of the ionizing radiation they emit, which has a tendency to produce lung cancer when decay occurs within the lungs (in the inhaled air for radon itself, or attached to floating dust particles for daughter isotopes). Radon itself isn't poisonous in a chemical sense at all -- as a noble gas, it doesn't react with other substances under normal conditions. Some of the daughter products ''are'' chemically poisonous, but are still far more dangerous for their radioactivity than for their chemical properties (e.g., lead-214 is far more dangerous than a similar quantity of any of the stable lead isotopes (206, 207, and 208)).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.191\|172.70.127.191]] 20:35, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	I think the title text has umbrella and cover because umbrellas cover things.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:35, 14 January 2025
Line 32:		Line 32:

	This comic sparked a tangentially related discussion at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemistry#Radon_and_Radium_spectral_lines Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry#Radon and Radium spectral lines], leading to the discovery that the spectra given on Wikipedia for multiple chemical elements (including Radon) had been wrong since 2013 -- the result of a bug in a 15-year-old Matlab plugin. [[User:Rexon Mobile\|Rexon Mobile]] ([[User talk:Rexon Mobile\|talk]]) 17:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)		This comic sparked a tangentially related discussion at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemistry#Radon_and_Radium_spectral_lines Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry#Radon and Radium spectral lines], leading to the discovery that the spectra given on Wikipedia for multiple chemical elements (including Radon) had been wrong since 2013 -- the result of a bug in a 15-year-old Matlab plugin. [[User:Rexon Mobile\|Rexon Mobile]] ([[User talk:Rexon Mobile\|talk]]) 17:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	== Radiation dose ==
		+
		+	I'm removing this paragraph entirely, since it's wildly incorrect and adding negative value; I may or may not have time to add a more accurate discussion later, if someone else hasn't done so first:
		+
		+	<blockquote>The actual amount of uranium experienced</blockquote>
		+
		+	You're actually talking about the total background radiation exposure, not specifically radiation from uranium (and one wouldn't normally describe exposure to radiation from uranium as "experiencing uranium" in any event).
		+
		+	<blockquote>in any given environment,</blockquote>
		+
		+	No, on average across all individuals, in all environments; the amount of background radiation exposure will be much higher in some environments than in others.
		+
		+	<blockquote>according to Randall's own Radiation chart, is 10 microsieverts worth of radiation, on average,</blockquote>
		+
		+	Across all individuals.
		+
		+	<blockquote>over a year</blockquote>
		+
		+	Over a ''day''. It literally says that in the entry in the chart.
		+
		+	<blockquote>the amount in one's body,</blockquote>
		+
		+	The amount of radiation exposure due to potassium decay within one's body.
		+
		+	<blockquote>in contrast, is about 390 microsievert over that same timeframe,</blockquote>
		+
		+	No, that one actually is per year.
		+
		+	<blockquote>again on average. The lowest dose linked to any serious risk is in the millisievert range, over thousands of times stronger than any of these sources. Thus the radiation from radon buildup in a normal house is not of concern,</blockquote>
		+
		+	No, the ''average'' amount of radiation exposure per individual -- averaged across the entire population, who vary wildly in not only the uranium content of the local soil, but also the characteristics of their basements, and even in whether they ''have'' a basement at all -- is not a concern. There are plenty of "normal" houses in which the radiation from radon buildup is a concern; there are just also plenty of other "normal" houses in which it is not.
		+
		+	<blockquote>as long as it is properly managed in time. Instead it is radon's toxicity that is the problem, both from the radon itself and its "daughter" isotopes, that poses a danger to humans.</blockquote>
		+
		+	This is absolutely false. Radon and its daughter products are dangerous to humans precisely because of the ionizing radiation they emit, which has a tendency to produce lung cancer when decay occurs within the lungs (in the inhaled air for radon itself, or attached to floating dust particles for daughter isotopes). Radon itself isn't poisonous in a chemical sense at all -- as a noble gas, it doesn't react with other substances under normal conditions. Some of the daughter products ''are'' chemically poisonous, but are still far more dangerous for their radioactivity than for their chemical properties (e.g., lead-214 is far more dangerous than a similar quantity of any of the stable lead isotopes (206, 207, and 208)).[[Special:Contributions/172.70.127.191\|172.70.127.191]] 20:35, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:03, 14 January 2025
Line 28:		Line 28:
	"This process will render the Earth uninhabitable for humans within approximately 5 billion years." That seems very optimistic. Isn't it more like 1 billion years? --[[User:Coconut Galaxy\|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy\|talk]]) 10:05, 14 January 2025 (UTC)		"This process will render the Earth uninhabitable for humans within approximately 5 billion years." That seems very optimistic. Isn't it more like 1 billion years? --[[User:Coconut Galaxy\|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy\|talk]]) 10:05, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
	:Yes the Earth will become uninhabitable in close to but less than a billion years. But not because the sun is expanding at the end of it's life. But because it gets hotter and begins to strip the Earths atmosphere, and this also means the end of the oceans. When they are gone, complicated life forms should not be possible. Bacteria could live until the sun possibly engulfs the Earth (it is not certain if this will happen though.) --[[User:Kynde\|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde\|talk]]) 12:22, 14 January 2025 (UTC)		:Yes the Earth will become uninhabitable in close to but less than a billion years. But not because the sun is expanding at the end of it's life. But because it gets hotter and begins to strip the Earths atmosphere, and this also means the end of the oceans. When they are gone, complicated life forms should not be possible. Bacteria could live until the sun possibly engulfs the Earth (it is not certain if this will happen though.) --[[User:Kynde\|Kynde]] ([[User talk:Kynde\|talk]]) 12:22, 14 January 2025 (UTC)
		+
		+	== Radon and Radium spectral lines ==
		+
		+	This comic sparked a tangentially related discussion at [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Chemistry#Radon_and_Radium_spectral_lines Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemistry#Radon and Radium spectral lines], leading to the discovery that the spectra given on Wikipedia for multiple chemical elements (including Radon) had been wrong since 2013 -- the result of a bug in a 15-year-old Matlab plugin. [[User:Rexon Mobile\|Rexon Mobile]] ([[User talk:Rexon Mobile\|talk]]) 17:03, 14 January 2025 (UTC)

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 Possible trivia:  The effect used in the title text for "²³⁸Umbrella" does NOT use html formatting.  It uses unicode for the almost-but-not-technically superscripted "238" before "Umbrella."  On some systems, this renders with the "23" being larger than and slightly below the level of the "8".  Whether Randall knew of this effect or not is a mystery.  If he did know, his motivations are a mystery.  Maybe the 8 is radioactive and emitted a non-massless particle, thereby making it smaller (less mass != less volume, but go with it here) and more buoyant (less weight) in the presence of the adjacent characters.  [[Special:Contributions/198.41.227.105|198.41.227.105]] 21:19, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
 :You can't use HTML markup in the title attribute, so there's no other way to do super/sub-scripting there. He could have used JavaScript to emulate the title attribute, though. [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:38, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
 What do people think of Hairstylist Wannabe's near-total rewrite of the explanation? While they added lots of technical details about radon, I think they missed much of the humor. Ponytail's comments are typical of the kind of things a home inspector or repair person will say to the owner, not really "flippant". [[User:Barmar|Barmar]] ([[User talk:Barmar|talk]]) 21:48, 13 January 2025 (UTC)
@@ Line 26: / Line 27: @@
 "This process will render the Earth uninhabitable for humans within approximately 5 billion years." That seems very optimistic. Isn't it more like 1 billion years? --[[User:Coconut Galaxy|Coconut Galaxy]] ([[User talk:Coconut Galaxy|talk]]) 10:05, 14 January 2025 (UTC)