Plutonium Dice

[Prak]

well? is there a safe way to do something like that or is it a horrible, stupid idea that would demolish any place you tried to play?

Is there a stable isotope or one which can be cased in plastic and not give off harmful rays capable of going through said plastic?

[CatharzGodfoot]

I know a guy who got radiation poison from DU in Kuwait, so probably no.

You could make lead dice, though. The plastic would help to keep them from deforming too much.

[Prak]

Okay, checking wikipedia, I answered my own question, Pu-244 is stable enough that it has a half-life 80.8 million years (so you won't open your dice one day and find a hunk of lead or uranium, well, unless you happen to be the watcher or silver surfer...) and it primarily emits alpha particles, which are readily stopped by a piece of paper.

next question, who would actually want this? I think it'd be kinda cool to say I have plutonium dice, but...

[SunTzuWarmaster]

If you want cool dice:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games ... br][br]Out of Stock right now, but I imagine you could wait for them to be in stock....

[the_taken]

1204232693[/unixtime]]If you want cool dice:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/games ... br][br]Out of Stock right now, but I imagine you could wait for them to be in stock....

Interesting. Those dice are "extremely portable."

[angelfromanotherpin]

Couple of my friends carry their dice in [counturl=138]these[/counturl]. Seamless...

[Username17]

Okay, checking wikipedia, I answered my own question, Pu-244 is stable enough that it has a half-life 80.8 million years

That's not actually a good thing. It means that every cubic centimeter of the stuff has 9.6 million fission events every second. That's... bad.

The fact that it also won't appreciably reduce its fission rate for the length of human civilization is also not good.

Remember kids, it's 31.5 million seconds in a year, it's 8.1% of a mole of Plutonium in every cubic centimeter (density of gold, but an atomic mass of 244!). But it's 6.022 times ten to the twenty third power atoms per mole. If it takes 80 million years for half of them to have a fission event, that's still a fuck tonne of radiation.

-Username17

[Prak]

except that it's alpha(or, at worst, beta), which can seriously be stopped by a sheet of paper(or, what, fiber glass for beta?)

[SunTzuWarmaster]

Just to let you know: the fact that I own my own dice stunts my reproduction rate enough that I don't have to use radiation to further hinder it.

[Crissa]

Yeah, but put a good coat of paint and you're golden, Frank.

Don't know what you have against radioactive substances... We're filled with various isotopes of lighter elements all the time. The fact that we refresh the oxygen and carbon isotopes in our body means it's measurable once we stop breathing.

-Crissa

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I think that I'll pass on the radioactive dice. I have some neat brass ones though.

[JonSetanta]

Prak, just don't do it.
Stick to pewter.

[Crissa]

Besides, most old pewter will tic a geiger anyhow.

-Crissa

Edited. It's one way you'll know the source and age of pewter.

[Username17]

1204237448[/unixtime]]except that it's alpha(or, at worst, beta), which can seriously be stopped by a sheet of paper(or, what, fiber glass for beta?)

Mostly we use aluminum for stopping most beta radiation.

However, there is still energy transfer. You can stop that level of alpha radiation with a piece of paper. That paper will however catch on fire. Also note that Plutonium's alpha decay creates Uranium 240, which has a half life of 14 hours and is considered extremely dangerous.

Highly radioactive substances are bad for you. Very very bad for you.

-Username17

[Surgo]

And God forbid you rub your eyes after rolling the dice, thus potentially placing alpha emitters right past that barrier of protection you have on the rest of your body.

[Draco_Argentum]

Its not like you can get enough plutonium to make dice with anyway.

[Crissa]

Why not aluminum dice?

Light, cheap, solid, durable...

-Crissa

[Koumei]

I saw a crystal d6 in a store, once. My first reaction was "ooh, pretty!", followed by "I bet it's poorly weighted." Finally "It'd get damaged if I actually rolled it and kept it in my dice bag" occurred to me.

Hmm, perhaps dice made from diamond, or even the hardest metal: Dragonforce!

[SunTzuWarmaster]

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Image:1148 ... jpg[br][br]

[JonSetanta]

A friend of mine has copper dice. Heavier than plastic, but won't kill you (maybe make you sick if you eat it though)

[Count Arioch the 28th]

A friend of mine said he was going to get two large brass D20's and carry them around in a small leather sack.

[tzor]

Toxicity issues aside, care must be taken to avoid the accumulation of amounts of plutonium which approach critical mass, particularly because plutonium's critical mass is only a third of that of uranium-235's. Despite not being confined by external pressure as is required for a nuclear weapon, it will nevertheless heat itself and break whatever confining environment it is in. Shape is relevant; compact shapes such as spheres are to be avoided.

Behold the icosahedron of DOOM!

Metallic plutonium is also a fire hazard, especially if the material is finely divided. It reacts chemically with oxygen and water, which may result in an accumulation of plutonium hydride, a pyrophoric substance; that is, a material that will ignite in air at room temperature. Plutonium expands considerably in size as it oxidizes and thus may break its container.

Correction

Behold the icosahedron of FLAMING DOOM!

Roll a 20 ... get a critical mass!

[Prak]

1204265120[/unixtime]]

1204237448[/unixtime]]except that it's alpha(or, at worst, beta), which can seriously be stopped by a sheet of paper(or, what, fiber glass for beta?)

Mostly we use aluminum for stopping most beta radiation.

However, there is still energy transfer. You can stop that level of alpha radiation with a piece of paper. That paper will however catch on fire.

see, that's the part they never tell you...

hell, it's pipe dream anyway, a single set would cost thousands of dollars, between acquisition(even though I imagine 244 isn't good for much), storage, handling, manufacture, and profit. And I can only think of one nerd with that much money to spend on dice... I'm sure he's got a set anyway.



....and I just realized that a long half life isn't important, it's that fact that the plutonium would be decaying into uranium every second... thank you frank... it took a bit but I remembered enough of my chem class and took your info and eventually realized what the problem was...


so what are some other interesting materials for dice you guys would like to see? I mean, other than the standard metal or crystal stuff.

what about jade with leds inside?

[Captain_Bleach]

He would have been better off buying two brass balls.

[Judging__Eagle]

1204285845[/unixtime]]I saw a crystal d6 in a store, once. My first reaction was "ooh, pretty!", followed by "I bet it's poorly weighted." Finally "It'd get damaged if I actually rolled it and kept it in my dice bag" occurred to me.

Hmm, perhaps dice made from diamond, or even the hardest metal: Dragonforce!

Diamond is extremely hard.

This means that it's extremely brittle.

Take a hammer and you can break it easy.

Dragonforce is most fucking softcore toilet paper of music I have ever heard. Tom Morello blasted those fools out of the water before they even cut a record.

Unless there's some secret Dragonforce that exists that doesn't suck and is full of awesome instead of fail.