The Question:
This element was once described as "brown lead". Clumpy and Kloumpios know
this element from their knowledge of a specific Norse Goddess. The chassis
of the Model T caused the first large scale commercial demand for this
element. Over 100,000 tons of this element are released into the atmosphere
from the burning of fossil fuels each year. This element was identified as
the key element for understanding how Damascus steel blades were
developed. What
element is being described?
The Answer:
The element is Vanadium (V). Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del
Río, a Spanish-Mexican mineralogist, in 1801. Del Río extracted the element
from a sample of Mexican "brown lead" ore. Vanadium derives its name from
the Old Norse word Vanadís (another name for the Norse Vanr goddess Freyja,
whose attributes include beauty and fertility). The most common oxide of
vanadium is used as a catalyst in manufacturing sulfuric acid. After years
of researching how ancient Damascus steel blades were made, Dr. J.
Verhoeven, Iowa State University, determined that 270 ppm of vanadium was
the key element addition for the strength of the legendary blades.
The winner of the quiz is Eray Canli, ANDAR Electromechanical Systems
and will
get the services of Clumpy and Kloumpios for the week.
EQAB reviewed and deemed Wayne Showers response as "honorable mention of
interest" for submitting erythronium. The IUPAC officially did not accept
erythronium as the element name so therefore Wayne's answer can not be
counted as correct. However, the naming history is quite interesting. Here
is the element naming history as detailed in Wiki:
Vanadium was discovered by Andrés Manuel del Río, a Spanish-Mexican
mineralogist, in 1801. Del Río extracted the element from a sample of
Mexican "brown lead" ore, later named vanadinite. He found that its salts
exhibit a wide variety of colors, and as a result he named the element
panchromium (Greek: παγχρώμιο "all colors"). Later, Del Río renamed the
element erythronium (Greek: ερυθρός "red") because most of the salts turned
red upon heating. In 1805, the French chemist Hippolyte Victor
Collet-Descotils, backed by del Río's friend Baron Alexander von Humboldt,
incorrectly declared that del Río's new element was only an impure sample
of chromium. Del Río accepted Collet-Descotils' statement and retracted his
claim.
In 1831, the Swedish chemist Nils Gabriel Sefström rediscovered the element
in a new oxide he found while working with iron ores. Later that same year,
Friedrich Wöhler confirmed del Río's earlier work. Sefström chose a name
beginning with V, which had not been assigned to any element yet. He called
the element vanadium after Old Norse Vanadís (another name for the Norse
Vanr goddess Freyja, whose attributes include beauty and fertility),
because of the many beautifully colored chemical compounds it produces. In
1831, the geologist George William Featherstonhaugh suggested that vanadium
should be renamed "rionium" after del Río, but this suggestion was not
followed.
I'll leave it to Doug to explain how Clumpy and Kloumpios relate to the
element.
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
- It appears that Clumpy and Kloumpios brought the rain with them after
we've had several weeks of dry and hot weather. I've been keeping them busy
all week with some Orcad layout work with a brief excursion to take my two
year old daughter to Mini Professors to learn about friction whilst
constructing a hover craft out of an old CD, balloon and the top of a
washing up liquid bottle. I caught them trying to violate the second law of
thermodynamics but managed to stop them in time before they could give
Louise bad ideas.
Week 69 Mordechai Kirshenbaum
- but I don't want the brothers to travel so far away (they already had
been in Israel several months ago)...so they get the week off!
Week 70 Doug Pauls, Rockwell Collins
- The boys will be glad to be home and see the wives and family for a long
weekend. They can help me with an 86000 lines of data statistical
analysis, but then they get the weekend off.
Week 71 Eray Canli, ANDAR Electromechanical Systems
- assisted with ????
I hope everyone has a awesome week!
Dave Hillman
Rockwell Collins
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