Theoretically, if we could compose atoms at will, wouldn't there be an infinite number of elements?

The atoms would become too large and unstabe. Imagen an atom the size of your fist... not much good as an atom any more...

But an atom that big and unstable might be useful for things like turning the moon into a permanent crescent, or destroying asteroids carrying alien races...

resourcefulness-um I think I'll start a new thread. It's gonna have somehting to do with math, science, infinite possibilities and evil. If I could just get the answers I want I promise I'll do the laundry and wash dishes as soon as the meals over. I swear! This is my "I'm not lying face" ............
damn, like that'd get it, grrrrrr

j0662 has a point. Most of the atoms in the heavy element category are unstable. The heavy atoms in the periodic table appear to be quite radioactive. The heaviest of them all have halflifes that are less than a second.

if we had the power necessary to create atoms the size of your fist, then we wouldnt be wasting time making atoms with it, there would be more direct ways of making the moon into a permanent crescent (great phrase, by the way, im stealing that).

To create more complex elements from simplier ones have always been a goal of alchemy. To bad its seems like it is going take more than hermetic doctrines and alchemical furnaces to join the right amount of protons and neutrons. Think such things are possible?

you want to make a huge bome that dwarfs an atomic bomb. in a chemical explosion only about 0.000000001% of its mass is converted to energy. a nuclear bomb .007% of its mass is converted to energy. where as when matter and anti matter is leached togther 100%of its energy is released.a bomb the size of a car would take out the earth. think of the power that would have.

Galactic Destruction. Just use something that has alotalot of energy and harvest its full potential. Imagine under those figures an atom bomb at 100%.

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Originally posted by Rustysickle:
To create more complex elements from simplier ones have always been a goal of alchemy. To bad its seems like it is going take more than hermetic doctrines and alchemical furnaces to join the right amount of protons and neutrons. Think such things are possible?

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Sorry to have to correct you but you have it wrong.
Most people think that Alchemy was about the turning of lesser metals [usually lead] into silver or gold. This is not true. There were people [called 'puffers' by the true followers of the Art] who's goal was just that.
The true goal of anyone whowas seriously interested in the Art was the perfection of the sould. This was expressed in the physical world by the perfection of base metals. Gold was considered the perfect metal. They believed that everything consisted of only four basic elements: Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. And that different combinations of these four things produced everything that was. THey believed that by changing the amount of these elements in something they could change it [transmute it] into something else.
Likewise, they believed in the ability to change the soul to a more perfect state.
So the process of perfecting the soul was accompied by the process of perfecting the base metal into gold.
What they sought to create was the Philosopher's Stone [also known sometimes as the universal medicine]. This stone was what would transmute the base metal into silver or gold. Likewise the universal medicine would cure the body of all ills and prolong the life [or create immortality, according to some].

Now, this has been a quick and dirty explanation of Alchemy. It goes much deeper and what I've wrote may even seem a bit self-contradictory - I don't have the time to go in deeper, here.

I do know of what I speak, though. I've studied ALchemy for over 20 years.
In fact it is one of the reasons that I named my daughter Alchemy [the other being a hearse driving girl in the movie 'Phantasm II', but you woun't tell Ali, wil you? ]

why would you study alchemy. its of no use now and proven wrong.

First, it's not proven wrong [nor proven right]. Just like esp, cold fusion and other 'out there' stuff, it might or might not be true. Science does not have all of the answers, nor are the ones that they do have necessarily correct.
In fact, physicists have transmuted lead into gold. They bombarded some lead with neutrons.

I'm very much into science and I'm not saying that it is true.

More than any other reason, though, I read it because it is interesting reading.

Correction noted. Out of curiosity, I browsed through some alchemical texts. Anyone who reads them out of interest must have an interest in brain teasers. The difference between what is allegorical and not is often blurred.

To me it was of little interest, prefering more practical information. Nice pictures though.

Magma is an electronic gel found in the centre of the sun. It is an element but I've never seen it on the periodic table. I want answers damnit.

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Originally posted by Deviant:
Magma is an electronic gel found in the centre of the sun. It is an element but I've never seen it on the periodic table. I want answers damnit.

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Magma is found at the center of the earth, not the sun.Magma is the term used for the molten rock, iron, nickle and other stuff found at the center of the earth.

What you are thinking of, at the center of the sun, is plasma. You haven't seen it in the periodic table because it isn't an element. Nor is it an electronic gel [though that is closer to the mark]. What it is is a substance in which many of the atoms or molecules are effectively ionized, allowing charges to flow freely. It is sometimes known as the "Fourth State of Matter". Though plasmas might be considered the First State of Matter, Since some 99% of the known universe is in the plasma state and has been since the Big Bang.*

*Taken from the Plasma_Dictionary



[This message has been edited by Metaphysicist (edited 02-06-2002).]

You guys are so smart
one day i will be as knowledged as you