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U.S. Army Training Film Fundamentals of Radioactivity “ the Radioisotope Part 1 ” 88744 (1951)

1951 · Short film · 34 min

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Synopsis

This film focuses on the radioisotope; the radioactive isotope of an element. It was produced with the cooperation of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and its contractors (:23). It opens with a quote from Democritus (:40) as well as a man searching for gold in a river (1:03). Today, scientists hunt for minerals such as gold and silver in addition to others such as uranium (1:08). Uranium is a radioactive metal discovered through the use of a Geiger counter (1:20). Scientists believed it would eventually be able a viable power source (1:42), though this would take years of extensive research. The nuclear reactor and incubator of plutonium was a precursor to atomic power plants (1:51). Atomic energy was also the source of radioisotopes (1:58). A diagram of an atom is shown which is the basic unit of matter and within it, electrons revolve around a central nucleus (3:11). The nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons (3:24) and the proton carries a unit of positive charge whereas the neutron carries no charge and the electron carries a negative charge (4:06). Charge is dictated in subscript while the mass is dictated in superscript (4:20). The designation for Helium is provided (4:42) as well as for hydrogen and lithium (5:24). All atoms of the same elements have the same number of protons though in most elements there exists variations in the number of neutrons (5:45). These variations are known as isotopes which have different mass numbers (6:26). Cobalt is an example of…

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Running time
34 minutes
Collection
Ephemeral Films

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