Talk:Iridium
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Article changed over to new WikiProject Elements format by maveric149
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Information Sources
Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Iridium (http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/77.html). Additional text was taken directly from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org (http://www.dict.org)), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org (http://www.dict.org)) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org (http://www.dict.org)). Data for the table were obtained from the sources listed on the subject page and WikiProject Elements but were reformatted and converted into SI units.
Talk
Some said the Iridium satellites had to be destroyed as mandated by the Bankrupcy court. Who can verify if they were destroyed or adopted by DoD?
They were to be decommissioned (allowed to drop out of orbit and burn up - might have been impressive to see the "iridium flares") but the network was purchased by the DOD in mid-2001 I believe (someone needs to do the research). --Justfred
I know they were not destroyed, tho who got them escaped me. But i'm pretty sure the bankruptcy court gave no order remotely resembling that. The press accounts left me with no doubt that the supposed plan, not to let them "drop" but to intentionally order them to do so within a short time (days), was a bluff by the owners in trying to flush out some buyer that they imagined was willing to bid higher on them than when the potential buyers believed time was on their side. --Jerzy(t) 23:33, 2004 Mar 4 (UTC)
6 December 2002: Is there or isn't there a country called Iridium??? I am going through and editing all the country pages, and found 'Iridium' in my list of countries... can someone clarify this for me? - User:Mark Ryan
- I've never heard of such a nation. Neither has http://www.dict.org/ (which has all CIA Factbook data in it). --Dan
It's in my current White Pages phone book in the international calling codes - apparently you dial 881 then 6 to phone that country. - User:Mark Ryan
OK, I just found out the answer. The international calling code 881 isn't reserved for a country called Iridium, it's for the satellite mobile network of the same name!!! lol I can't believe I didn't realise that right away. I feel stupid. - User:Mark Ryan
Ir and Dinosaurs
"Iridium is notable for being the most corrosion resistant element known and for its association with the demise of the dinosaurs. "
What's the connection??
- See Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event and look for "iridium". This is already explained in this article, however. --mav 09:00, 21 Jan 2004 (UTC)
pens
I think there's some confusion here. Iridium is actually used (along with osmium and platinum) for tipping fountain pen nibs, not to make ballpoint balls. (Error may have crept in from misinterpreting Los Alamos page.)
iridium windows?
to protect radioactive sources? - Omegatron 22:38, Feb 4, 2005 (UTC)
Apparent typo on density
- The density of this element is only slightly lower than that of osmium, which is generally considered to be the heaviest element known. However, calculations of density from the space lattice may produce more reliable data for these elements than actual measurements and give a density of 22650 kg/m³ for iridium versus 22661 kg/m³ for osmium. Definitive selection between the two is therefore not possible at this time.
This paragraph doesn't exactly make sense. It reads as if there's some uncertainty, but it seems to say that osmium is denser both experimentally and theoretically.
Yet density of Osmium given at Osmium as well as at Web Elements (http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Os/phys.html) is 22.61 x 10^3 kg/m^-3, (not 22661) meaning that the wiki has a typo (which was apparently carried over from a typo at Los Alamos National Labs (http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/76.html). Moreover, unless someone has a better source, it doesn't look like the actual precision of the calculation goes to the nearest kg/m^-3.
So that's why I'm editing the page. (I was just looking for some pretty pictures of the rainbow colors, man. Where's the party?)
--Munge 05:54, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)