The Disappearing Spoon Chapter 16 Summary/Reflection

1. Tin alpha and beta shapes are significantly different, but do constitute as different forms of matter.
2. It is only under extremely low temperatures when it begins to defy certain rules that it can combine with other elements (what a rebel).
3. Maser = Microwave Amplification By Stimulated Emission of Radiation.  Laser = light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
4. Neodymium can help make the world's strongest magnets
5. Atoms, at low temperatures, occupy the lowest quantum state.

Summary

Back when nobody had been able to reach the south pole, Robert Falcon Scott and his team attempted to be the first to reach the south pole.  However, they arrived about a month late and found they were beat by a Norwegian.  While returning, they died due to tins properties in very low temperatures.  Their tin containers had broken down in the cold temperatures and spoiled their food, water, and fuel.  

Like tin, when most atoms or particles achieve extremely low temperatures, they begin to exhibit traits that they shouldn't.  For example, Argon, a noble gas, should not be able to combine with anything.  But when cooled to extremely low temperatures, it begins to combine with certain elements.  One new method of lowering the temperature of atoms to the extreme was laser cooling.  By bumping photons onto particles at the right angles, the particle begins to cool to very low temperatures.  This eventually led to the discovery of Bose Einstein Condensate, a new state of matter.

Reflection

I really enjoyed this chapter because it's a way of telling you that everything you had learned till now was wrong, but also right. The Bose Einstein Condensate part I found extremely interesting, I actually learned this in Academic Decathlon, I am normally used to only hearing about solids, liquids, gases, and occasionally plasmas.