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The Periodic Table of Tech
itwbennett writes "From calcium in cameras and germanium in CPUs to selenium in solar cells. Here's a look at how every single element in the periodic table is used in common tech products. For example: Scandium is used in the bulbs in metal halide lamps, which produce a white light source with a high color rendering index that resembles natural sunlight. These lights are often appropriate for the taping of television shows. ... Yttrium helps CRT televisions produce a red color. When used in a compound, it collects energy and passes it to the phosphor. ... Niobium: Lithium niobate is used in mobile phone production, incorporated into surface acoustic wave filters that convert acoustic waves into electrical signals and make smartphone touchscreens work. SAW filters also provide cell signal enhancement, and are used to produce the Apple iPad 2."
It would have been so much funnier if they put the Hindenburg on the H tile instead of that car.
Isn't that the shit they make condoms out of and feed to goat?
"Dad, Mom says we used to have television with something in it called a SEE-ARR-TEE. What was one of those?"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Who cares about a fucking periodic table. Children are starving in Africa and you give a shit about a fucking periodic table? Fuck you. Instead of shooting electron beams at a periodic table to see what happens these scientists should be in the wheat fields growing food for starving children in 3rd world countries. First world fuckers like yourself are decadent faggots who care more about a periodic table than humans. Those same starving children probably mined the periodic table for you so you could play with it in your lab. Fuckers.
Indium tin oxide is (was?) one of the primary clear conductive coatings used on LCD screens.
To all you virgins: Thanks for nothing.
They forgot my favorite element...*drools*...unobtanium!
If one just goes by the image, iron is apparently no longer used in any tech at all. Can you short iron ore commodities? Or is that just for stocks?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I was wondering which products use astatine, but alas, the Slashdot summary is a lie. They mention it, but only to say it's not used for anything.
Recently discovered, used in chest pieces, less dangerous than palladium. I don't see it on there though. Guess it's just not updated.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Probably most of us don't have one in the garage, but argon is very important in MIG / TIG welders, and how much other stuff is made with one of these?
If /. were to have an official element it's gotta be Tin!
Set your phasers on "funky"!
Lithium niobate is used in mobile phone production, incorporated into surface acoustic wave filters that convert acoustic waves into electrical signals and make smartphone touchscreens work. SAW filters also provide cell signal enhancement, and are used to produce the Apple iPad 2.
Leaving aside the ridiculously opaque description of SAW filters' role ("enhancement"? "used to produce"?), is there any smartphone with SAW touchscreen? AFAIK, they're all capacitive or resistive, with a very few cases including an active (RF resonance) digitizer.
It's like a student was assigned this project and just googled a bunch of related terms and threw them together in a "plausible sounding" way with the hope that the professor had no greater knowledge than they did.
While interesting, the TFA is missing more content than it contains. Just a few quick oversights that I thought of while skimming the list. Platinium is widely used in sparkplugs. Uranium was used in depression glass as well as pottery and it is the active ingredient in armor piercing DU ammunition. Rhodium is used in electronics where arcing is undesirable.
I wonder how long before the electric and hybrid cars become a target of theft for the precious metal and rare earth content. Iron doesn't show up at all. Scandium is used to make high strength aluminum alloys. Gallium-Arsenide has a very low internal resistance which made it suitable for high frequency and photo sensitive circuits for years.
plus its fun to rip this kind of stupid into neat chunks.
If it wasn't illegal i would suggest him being converted to fertilizer and then shipped to Africa where he could promote the growth of Food for those children.
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Now I like Apple products as much as your average /. poster doesn't, but this namedrop almost makes me want to swear off Apple and go Linux and Android for the rest of my life.
Lithium is found in batteries for small electronics. For instance, lithium-based batteries are found inside the Apple iPhone 5.
Considering every piece of electronics that exists uses a lithium chemistry of one sort or another, singling out the iPhone was thoroughly unnecessary and just pandering to a popular product.
These lights are often appropriate for the taping of television shows.
Well, yes and no. VHS recorders do tend to work better if they are brightly illuminated, but Betamax machines can operate in near total darkness and still maintain a steady picture for upwards of fifteen minutes.
This is yet another of the countless examples of why Betamax is the better standard and will ultimately take over as the dominant format. In the 1990s, people will look back and laugh at VHS' inferiority to Betamax, and the folly of those who chose VHS.
In the next millenium, we will all have advanced Betamax machines which will, through technical improvements, be completely insenstive to light.
I lost respect for this fluff piece after reading this:
Though not directly related to any tech product because of its toxicity, arsenic is commonly used in bronzing and pyrotechnics.
Gallium arsenide has been used for years in cutting edge semiconductor applications. I've heard it referred to as "the semiconductor of the future" in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, due to its high performance which comes at high cost. Essentially, what this implies is that technologies are often prototyped on GaAs but reworked to use silicon semiconductors instead before mass manufacturing.
Anyway, if they missed GaAs while doing a survey of "tech applications of elements", what else did they miss?
The blue laser diodes are gallium nitride. I would hope they'd know the difference, as it's kind of important to put sodium chloride instead of sodium chlorate on your baked potato.
Ooh, moderator points! Five more idjits go to Minus One Hell!
Delendae sunt RIAA, MPAA et Windoze
The table is incredibly half-assed. Even if you assume "tech" really means "electronics", how about iron, copper and cadmium left blank? Duh. Also, arsenic, germanium, fluorine, chromium, mercury, lead, nitrogen, ... AAARRGGH!