Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Tritium |
TritiumNoun1. A radioactive isotope of hydrogen; atoms of tritium have three times the mass of ordinary hydrogen atoms. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Energy | A radioactive isotope of hydrogen (one proton, two neutrons). Because it is chemically identical to natural hydrogen, tritium can easily be taken into the body by any ingestion path. It decays by beta emission. It has a radioactive halflife of about 12.5 years. (references) |
Mining | The radioactive isotope of hydrogen having two neutrons and one proton in the nucleus. Being hydrogen-3, it is heavier than deuterium (heavyhydrogen or hydrogen-2). (references) |
Nuclear Energy & Physics | The isotope of hydrogen having a mass number of 3. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Tritium (symbol T or 3H) is an isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of tritium contains one proton and two neutrons, whereas a normal hydrogen nucleus consists of just one proton. Its atomic weight is 3.016049. It is a gas (T2 or 3H2) at standard temperature and pressure.
It is radioactive (an average 6 keV beta emitter) and has a half-life of 12.26 years. The low-energy beta radiation from tritium cannot penetrate human skin, so tritium is only dangerous if consumed in large quantities. Its low energy also makes it difficult to detect tritium labelled compounds except by using liquid scintillation counting.
Tritium occurs naturally due to cosmic rays interacting with deuterium in the atmosphere. It is produced in nuclear reactors by exposing Li6 to a neutron source.
Tritium figures prominently in studies of nuclear reactions, especially nuclear fusion due to its favorable reaction cross section and high energy yield. All atomic nuclei, being composed of protons and neutrons, repel one another because of their positive charge. However, if the atoms have a high enough temperature (as is the case in the core of the Sun, for example), than their random motions can overcome such electrical repulsion, and they can be be jammed together into new atoms. Since tritium has the same charge as ordinary hydrogen, it experiences the same electrical repulsive force. However, due to its higher mass, it is less responsive to such forces, and thus can more easily fuse with other atoms. The same is also true, albeit to a lesser extent, of deuterium, and that is why brown dwarfs (so called failed stars) can't burn hydrogen, but do indeed burn deuterium.
Atmospheric nuclear testing (prior to the Partial Test Ban Treaty) proved unexpectedly useful to oceanographers, as the sharp spike in surface tritium levels could be used over the years to measure the rate at which the lower and upper ocean levels mixed.
Small amounts are used with phosphors for self-illuminating devices such as watches and exit signs.
Tritium was first produced in 1934 from deuterium, another isotope of hydrogen, by Ernest Rutherford, working with Marcus L. Oliphant and Paul Harteck . Rutherford was unable to isolate the tritium, a job that was left to Luis Alvarez, who correctly deduced that the substance was radioactive. W. F. Libby discovered that tritium could be used for dating water, and therefore geological samples and vintage wines.
Tritium combines with oxygen to form a liquid called tritiated water (T2O).
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Tritium."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Calefaction | Cauterizer; caustic, lunar caustic, alkali, apozem, moxa; acid, aqua fortis, aqua regia; catheretic, nitric acid, nitrochloro-hydric acid, nitromuriatic acid; radioactivity, gamma rays, alpha particles, beta rays, X-rays, radiation, cosmic radiation, background radiation, radioactive isotopes, tritium, uranium, plutonium, radon, radium. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Tritium |
| Specialty definitions using "tritium": ground-water tracers ♦ proton-proton reaction ♦ tritiated water, Tritium or Triton. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Tritium" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Albanian (tritium). |
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Tritium" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Tritium" is used about 77 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 77 | 37,929 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "tritium": tritium-based. | |
Ending with "tritium": deuterium-tritium. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
tritium | 71 |
tritium sight | 13 |
tritium watch | 12 |
night sight tritium | 8 |
light tritium | 7 |
paint tritium | 4 |
tritium exit sign | 3 |
half life tritium | 2 |
pistol sight tritium | 2 |
compass lensatic tritium | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "tritium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | tritium. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | الترتيوم نظير للهيدروجين. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 超重氢, 氚 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | tritium. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | tritium. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | trituim, tritium. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Tritium. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | τρίτιο. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | trícium. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | trizio, tritio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 트리티움. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | itiumtray timidina marcada com tritio (tritium labelled thymidine), timidina marcada com trítio (tritium labelled thymidine). (various references) тритий (tritum). (various references) tritijum. (various references) tritio. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "tritium": tritiums. (additional references) | |
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"Tritium" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Erygium, protium, tertium, timtum, Titio, Titium, tridium, Triduum, trilium, Tristia, trition, tritum, Triturus, Trolium. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "tritium" (pronounced tri"tēum) |
| 4 | -t ē u m | protium, strontium. |
| 3 | -ē u m | alluvium, ammonium, aquarium, atrium, auditorium, axiom, bacterium, barium, beryllium, cadmium, calcium, cesium, chromium, colloquium, compendium, condominium, consortium, crematorium, delirium, deuterium, disequilibrium, emporium, equilibrium, europium, fermium, gallium, geranium, gonium, gymnasium, hafnium, harmonium, helium, Herbarium, holmium, honorarium, idiom, indium, iridium, lawrencium, linoleum, lithium, magnesium, medium, millennium, minium, moratorium, myocardium, nephridium, neptunium, niobium, nobelium, opium, opprobrium, osmium, palladium, pandemonium, paramecium, petroleum, planetarium, Plasmodium, plutonium, podium, polonium, potassium, premium, presidium, promethium, psyllium, radium, requiem, rhodium, selenium, sodium, stadium, superpremium, symposium, tedium, tellurium, thallium, thorium, titanium, uranium, vanadium, yttrium, zirconium. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "i-i-m-r-t-t-u" | |
-3 letters: miri, mitt, mutt, titi, trim. | |
-4 letters: mir, mut, rim, rum, rut, tit, tui, tut. | |
-5 letters: it, mi, mu, ti, um, ut. | |
| Words containing the letters "i-i-m-r-t-t-u" | |
+1 letter: triticum, tritiums. | |
+2 letters: triticums. | |
+3 letters: immaturity, maturities. | |
+4 letters: importunity, micturating, micturition, miniaturist, mistrusting, mistutoring, multitiered, termitarium, tristimulus, triumvirate, unremitting. | |
+5 letters: dumortierite, immaturities, intermixture, interstimuli, malnutrition, micturitions, miniaturists, misattribute, multiformity, multipartite, multipicture, multistoried, multivariate, multiversity, protactinium, resubmitting, traumatising, traumatizing, triumphalist, triumvirates, turbidimeter, turbidimetry. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Expressions 6. Expressions: Internet 7. Translations: Modern 8. Derivations | 9. Rhymes 10. Anagrams 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
