965: Elements

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Elements

Title text: Of all the nations, the armies of the ununoctium-benders are probably the least intimidating. The xenon-benders come close, but their flickery signs are at least effective for propaganda.

Explanation

In the popular children's TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender, the four nations that inhabit the world can each telekinetically control ("bend") one of the four classical elements: water, earth, fire and air. One person, the avatar, can control all four elements and is markedly more powerful than any other character. Dmitri Mendeleev is the creator of the modern periodic table, which categorizes the 118+ atomic elements by their atomic number.

The comic is comparing the control over more magical power with more practical, "science-y" power. Fire, boulders, and storms may be more impressive visually, but science has proven time and again that "boring" can have very practical, very deadly applications. Additionally, while the advantages of controlling the four alchemical elements are mostly physical and visible (characters in the show most often use their powers to push, throw, or create barriers), the phenomena related to Mendeleev's elements and his research include subatomic particle interactions. One power the depicted Mendeleev has that the Avatar definitely does not have is control over radioactive elements, and this is the subtle, slow-acting power he demonstrates.

The powers of the Avatar's world, moreover, generally require actual contact with the relevent element (or a material that is sufficiently composed within its sphere). An Earthbender typically cannot do anything to manipulate rock or soil without touching some connected part of it, and cannot do anything if suspended in the air or (until they can learn to manipulate any of the "earth impurities" within it) restrained and enclosed by metal. Firebenders generally learn to make use of their own bodyheat, in a manner that seems initially inconsistent with the other bending disciplines but is hand-waved (in either sense) to be actually very effective, insofar as waterbending significant effects only using one's own bodily moisture is a far less prolific occurance.

With this in mind, manipulating and coercing a particular element does not imply the ability to generate it from nothing. Mendeleev, therefore, should not be expected to spontaneously create any given rare element from nowhere, and (if true to the same philosophy, with the addition of modern scientific understanding of the elements) must therefore be either identifying and concentrating extremely small trace quantities already within reach (in order to weaponise the substance) or somehow be able to use his mastery of all elements to induce transmutation (via established fission or fusion processes from other types of atom under his full control).

Polonium gained a level of notoriety as the poison used to kill Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

The title text talks about power levels of the elements if each element had a controlling nation as per the TV show. Ununoctium (1-1-8-ium) was the placeholder name for oganesson, the 118th element. It did not officially gain its permanent name until late 2016, 5 years after this comic was released. Oganesson, the heaviest element that has been created, has the shortest life before it decays into other elements, with a half-life of less than a millisecond. Xenon, a noble gas like oganesson, has few practical applications, but it is sometimes used in "neon" signs.

Transcript

[Aang the Avatar and Dmitri Mendeleev stand in opposition to each other. Aang wields all 4 classical elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air.]

Aang: I'm the avatar, master of all 4 elements!

Mendeleev: Really? I'm Mendeleev, master of all 118+.

swoosh

Mendeleev: That was polonium-bending. You probably didn't feel anything, but the symptoms of radiation poisoning will set in shortly.

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Discussion

Where did Mendeleev get the polonium from? Can he transmute elements or something? Davidy²²[talk] 08:26, 9 March 2013 (UTC)

Did someone say transmute? 108.162.219.5 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Just because he died in the dawn of the era of modern fission research it doesn't necessarily follow he disbelieved in the previous manifestation of that branch of physics. I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 20:53, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

If the water in Aang's body (or the water he's bending) came from the Lohontan valley region of Nevada, then his body can have as much as .2 picocuries per liter.[1] this is not enough to kill you or even get you sick, but if Aang is bringing enough water into this epic battle Mendeleev could pull a lethal dose from that. The odds that this battle is taking place in Nevada are probably on a par with the actual Mendeleev the fictional Aang. 170.170.59.139 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Sodium bending would have been much more spectacular, due to the water.108.162.219.202 04:19, 3 January 2014 (UTC)

YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SilverMagpie (talk) 04:28, 1 December 2016 (UTC)

"2. Elements which are similar regarding their chemical properties have atomic weights which are either of nearly the same value (e.g., Pt, Ir, Os) or which increase regularly (e.g., K, Rb, Cs).

3. The arrangement of the elements in groups of elements in the order of their atomic weights corresponds to their so-called valencies, as well as, to some extent, to their distinctive chemical properties; as is apparent among other series in that of Li, Be, B, C, N, O, and F."

I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 20:53, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

Mendeleev was the inventor of the original periodic chart which looks nothing like the modern one. The inventor of the Modern periodic chart was Glenn Seaborg. Kinda sorta. At least you would recognize Seaborg's chart as the modern one where if you saw Mendeleev's you would just go "WTF?". OTOH, both Seaborg and Mendeleev have elements named after them and you do not. --173.245.54.11 17:53, 16 May 2014 (UTC)

Even though he never finalised it, it is pretty obvious that it was going to unfold exactly as he supposed it would. I used Google News BEFORE it was clickbait (talk) 20:53, 22 January 2015 (UTC)

I wonder which element would win? 173.245.56.180 16:17, 23 May 2015 (UTC)

Praseodymium-benders won. 162.158.88.188 09:51, 24 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure that polonium is rare, so I will assume that Periodic-type Benders can create their elements at will. If so... Benders of transuranic elements or astatine would be terrifying. -- OriginalName (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

He just carries some with him at all times, in case something like this happens. 141.101.104.185 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

---

He only comes with polonium in the Radioactive pack, banned in China and Russia. Only $1999! If you're cheap though, buy the Extreme pack, which is just Nihanium and Yttrium. llol Still^Not_Original 22:09, 20 May 2018 (UTC)

Several people have questioned from where the polonium came from, here in Talk, but nothing about it appeared in the main explanation... until just now, where I used (abbreviated) Avatar/Korra 'lore' to point out the discrepancy, but also gave two of the possible answers (a gathering occured, possibly including having previously isolated a very small pouch of it, or the possibility of highly controlled transmutation). I omited the possibility that the bending can temporarily increase/duplicate seed quantities of its bending target (though that seems to explain Firebending best), but that would be a third (isolate and duplicate a chanced-upon single atom of 'naturally present' polonium, maybe). 172.70.86.15 19:54, 2 September 2024 (UTC)