The Question:

This is one of the few radioactive elements we intentionally bring into our
households. This element is closely tied to the Manhattan project. Traces
of this element can be found today at Chernobyl, the Enewetak atoll,
Alamogordo and near the Thule Air base in Greenland. This element has found
commercial use for indirect analysis of materials in radiography and X-ray
fluorescence spectroscopy.  What element is being described?


The Answer:

The element is Americium (Am)! Americium is used in the most common type of
household smoke detector, which uses Am-241 in the form of americium
dioxide as its source of ionizing radiation. This isotope is preferred over
Ra-266 because it emits 5 times more alpha particles and relatively little
harmful gamma radiation. Existing americium is concentrated in the areas
used for the atmospheric nuclear weapons tests conducted between 1945 and
1980, as well as at the sites of nuclear incidents such as Chernobyl or the
crash site of a US Boeing B-52 bomber aircraft, which carried four hydrogen
bombs, in 1968 in Greenland.


The winner of the quiz is Tom Brendlinger and he will get the services
of Clumpy
& Kloumpios for the week.  Tom just beat John Maxwell in submiting the
correct element.

EQAB did review Doug's submission of "Catmium" but unfortunately his
response was deemed incorrect. An inquiry to the CFA (Cat Fancier's
Association) found no record of the cats Doug listed as either recognized
or non-recognized cat breeds.

So far Clumpy and Kloumpios have done the following:

Past Quiz winners/tasks:
Week 1 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 1 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.
Week 2 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 3 Mark Kostinovsky, Schlumberger Ltd.
Week 3 John Burke
Week 4 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 5 No Winner - no correct responses!
Week 6 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 7 Keith Calhoun, Sopark Corp
Week 7 Ian Fox, Rolls Royce
Week 8 Leland Woodall
Week 8 David Bealer, SMT
Week 9 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 10 Louis Hart, Compunetics
Week 11 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 11 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 12 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 13 No Quiz,
Week 14 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 15 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 16 John Maxwell
Week 17 Leland Woodall
Week 18 Leland Woodall
Week 19 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 20 Robert Kondner
Week 21 Tom Brendlinger, ClearMotion Inc.
Week 22 Carl Van Wormer, Cipher Engineering LCC
Week 23 Juliano Ribeiro, DATACOM
Week 24 Gerry Gagnon, FLIR Commercial Systems
Week 25 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 26 Joyce Koo, IPC International
Week 26 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 27 Bhanu Sood, NASA
Week 28 Leland Woodall
Week 29 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 30 Leland Woodall
Week 31 Leland Woodall
Week 32 Steve Gregory
Week 33 Leland Woodall
Week 34 Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 35 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 36 Graham Collins, Sunsel Systems
Week 37 Richard "Dean" Stadem
Week 38 Leland Woodall
Week 38 Tom Carroll
Week 39 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 40 Leland Woodall
Week 41 Tom Carroll
Week 42 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 43 Joyce Koo
Week 44 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 45 Leland Woodall
Week 45 Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc
Week 46 Ian Fox, Rolls-Royce Control Systems
Week 47 Fred Cox, Bluering Stencils
Week 48 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 49 Todd MacFadden, Bose
Week 49 Leland Woodall
Week 50 Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 51 Ravinder Ajmani, Western Digital
Week 52 Leland Woodall
Week 53 Scott Decker, UTAS
Week 54 Leland Woodall
Week 55 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 56 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 57 Steve Herring, Pennatronics Corp
Week 58 Leland Woodall
Week 59 Drew Meyer, Benchmark
Week 60 Leland Woodall
Week 61 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 62 Leland Woodall!
Week 63 Matthias Mansfeld, Mansfeld Elektronik PCB Design and Assembly
Week 63 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 63 Tom Granat
Week 64 George Wenger
Week 65  Frank Kimmey, VeriFone Inc.
Week 66  Jerry Dengler, Pergamon Corp
Week 66  Leland Woodall
Week 67  Eray Canli,  ANDAR Electromechanical Systems
Week 68  James Head
Week 69  Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 70 Doug Pauls, Rockwell Collins
Week 71  Eray Canli,  ANDAR Electromechanical Systems
Week 72  Russell Kido, Practical Components
Week 73 Denny Friz
Week 74 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 74 Leland Woodall
Week 75 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
Week 76 Tom Carroll, Boeing
Week 76 Eray Canli,  ANDAR Electromechanical Systems
Week 77 Drew Meyer, Benchmark Electronics
Week 78 David Bealer, WatchFire Signs
Week 79 Torsten Hagge, Kristronics
Week 80 Russell Kido, Practical Components

Week 83 Russell Kido, Practical Components

Week 84 Tom Granat

Week 85 Leland Woodall

Week 85 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.

Week 86 Ron Feyereisen, SigmaTron Intl.

Week 87 Steven Herring, Pennatronics Corp


Week 88 Leland Woodall

- The guys arrived just in time to assist me with the completing my monthly
reports.  Those are now done, so I'm sending them off to the coast.  Maybe
they can catch and bring me back some fish before they fly off to their
next adventure.


Week 89 Tom Carroll, Boeing

- In an effort to squash the conspiracy theories out there, I will be
willing to split the services of Clumpy & Kloumpios for the week. I will
take them for the first part of the week so they can help me review the
quality management system of a distributor. I would like to use them to get
into the small back rooms and find out what really happens. Then on Tuesday
I will send them to Leland for the remainder of the week.


Week 90 Tom Brendlinger

-assisted with ????


I hope everyone has a awesome week!
Dave Hillman
Collins Aerospace
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