Science Trivia Science Questions Science Trivia Questions Science Test Scientific Questions Science Quiz Hubble Space Telescope Science Trivia Quizzes Physics Questions Physics Trivia Questions Science Questions and Answers Geology Questions Gravity Trivia Questions Hydrogen Trivia Questions Helium Trivia Questions Chemical Element Carbon Questions AI - Artificial Intelligence Questions
Questions and Answers About The Element Helium
What is helium?
A: Helium is a chemical element with symbol He and atomic number 2.
It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert,
monatomic what?
A: Gas that heads the noble gas group in the periodic table.
Its boiling and melting points are the what?
A: Lowest among the elements.
Helium exists only as a "what" except in extreme
conditions?
A: Gas.
Helium is the second "what" element?
A: Lightest.
It's the second most abundant element in what?
A: The observable universe, being present at about 24% of the total elemental
mass.
Most helium in the universe is helium-4, and is believed to
have been formed during what?
A: The Big Bang.
What is creating large amounts of new helium?
A: Nuclear fusion of hydrogen in stars.
Helium is named for what Greek god?
A: Helios, the sun God.
It was first detected as a what?
A: An unknown yellow spectral line signature in sunlight during a
solar eclipse
in 1868.
It was discovered by whom?
A: By French astronomer Jules Janssen.
In 1903, where were large reserves of helium found?
A: In natural gas fields in parts of the United States.
Helium is used in cryogenics for cooling what?
A: Superconducting magnets, with the main commercial application being in MRI
scanners.
Helium's other industrial uses account for how much of the
gas produced?
A: Half.
A well-known but minor use is as a lifting gas in what?
A: Balloons and airships.
As with any gas whose density differs from that of air,
inhaling a small volume of helium temporarily changes the timbre and quality of
what?
A: The human voice.
On Earth helium is relatively what?
A: Rare, 5.2 ppm by volume in the atmosphere.
In 1882, who detected helium on Earth, for the first time?
A: Italian physicist Luigi Palmieri.
On March 26, 1895, Scottish chemist Sir William Ramsay
isolated helium on Earth by doing what?
A: By treating the mineral cleveite with mineral acids.
Ramsay was looking for argon but, after separating nitrogen
and oxygen from the gas liberated by sulfuric acid, he noticed what?
A: A bright yellow line that matched the D3 line observed in the spectrum of the
Sun.
In 1907, Ernest Rutherford and Thomas Royds demonstrated
that alpha particles are what?
A: Helium nuclei.
In 1908, helium was first liquefied by whom by cooling the
gas to less than one kelvin?
A: Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes.
He tried to solidify it by further reducing the temperature
but why did he fail?
A: Because helium does not have a triple point temperature at which the solid,
liquid, and gas phases are at equilibrium.
Willem Hendrik Keesom was eventually able to solidify 1
cm3 of helium in 1926 by doing what?
A: Applying additional external pressure.
The US Navy sponsored three small experimental helium
plants during what?
A: World War I.
What was the goal of the three plants?
A: To supply barrage balloons with the non-flammable, lighter-than-air gas.
How much gas was produced?
A: A total of 5,700 m3 (200,000 cu ft) of 92% helium.
The government of the United States set up the what, in
1925 at Amarillo,
Texas?
A: National Helium Reserve.
What was the goal of the reserve?
A: Supplying military airships in time of
war and commercial airships in
peacetime.
Helium produced between 1930 and
1945 was how pure?
A: About 98.3% pure (2% nitrogen), which was adequate for airships.
In 1945, a small amount of 99.9% helium was produced for
what?
A: Welding use.
Commercial quantities of Grade A 99.95% helium were
available by what year?
A: By 1949.
For many years the United States produced how much of the commercially usable helium in the world?
A: Over 90%.
In the mid-1990s, a new plant in Arzew, Algeria began
operation, with enough production to cover what?
A: All of Europe's demand.
Meanwhile, by 2000, the consumption of helium within the
U.S. had risen to what?
A: Above 15 million kg per year.
As of 2012 the United States National Helium Reserve
accounted for how much of the world's helium?
A: 30 percent.
In the perspective of quantum mechanics, helium is the
second simplest atom to what?
A: Model, following the hydrogen atom.
Helium is composed of two electrons in atomic orbitals
surrounding a nucleus containing what?
A: Two protons along with some neutrons.
The nucleus of the helium-4 atom is identical with a what?
A: An alpha particle.