I have made a bet with me mate Honky tonk, that I can split an atom in my kitchen this afternoon using only ..

Question

a kitchen knife, a tin opener and some household bleach,
advice please! 50p is at stake.

Answer 1

Yeh but the problem is that you will be invaded by the freedom loving people of the USA for having an unregulated nuclear installation in your kitchen.

Answer 2

Well, you could do this, I suppose:

An atom splits because it is unstable. Uranium (for example) can be made unstable by firing a neutron at the nucleus. This makes the atomic mass to great for the binding energy and the atom decays into two daughter atoms.

Carbon 14 also decays. Carbon 14 decays into Nitrogen 14 and an electron. This is a radioactive decay and, just like Uranium, the atom decays to become more stable. The daughters are Nitrogen and an electron.

Now, importantly, you could say that Carbon 14 decaying into Nitrogen 14 and an electron is like splitting an atom, because the nucleus of the atom is changing and emitting a particle (the electron) in the same way Uranium does. Okay, so it's not exactly the same and no-where near as much energy is released, and essentially you still only have one nucleus (unless you consider the electron to be the neucleus of some exotic back-to-front atom).

Importantly, your kitchen knife will have carbon in it (it's steel, right?). There is one part in a trillion (0.0000000001%) of all naturally occuring carbon. Believe it or not, this is actuall quite a lot when you imagine just how many carbon atoms there will be in your kitchen knife!

The half-life of Carbon 14 is 5730 years. So, if you want to show your mate you can split an atom, GIVE him the knife and tell him to watch it. Then wave your arms around like you are performing some magic trick. Then tell him to wait 5730 years and not only will you have split one atom, you will have split HALF of all the carbon 14 atoms in that knife!

Wow, what an achievement. Magic. The tin opener and the bleach are red herrings, but I am sure they all contain radioactive isotopes in them, so they can all decay.

Now, I want half of your 50p. I will accept a cheque for 25p made payable to....

NOTE TO PEARLSAWME:

The sodium and chlorine in salt are already ions. Remember, salt is bonded ionically? So by disolving salt in water you have achieved nothing. Also, to separate the two type of ions (cations and anions) you have to apply an electrical potential difference to the solution. Even so, your answer doesn't satisfy the question outlined by crispy.

Answer 3

Sorry but it just can't be done - Easy enough to fake though:- Place the tin opener on a table top and strike viciously with the knife, simultaneously squirt the bleach in your mates eyes and scream that the blinding flash has burned your eyes. He'll never know the difference - I've pulled this one myself, it works. If he is a good friend wash his eyes with plenty of water afterwards.

Answer 4

First hit the atom with the tin opener to stun it , then pour over the bleach to keep away any unwanted Hastie's, then whack it straight down the middle with the kitchen knife, there you go, 50p better off.

Answer 5

Use the edge of the 50p to cut through it, far more effective than kitchen knife.

Answer 6

At last - a sensible physics question for me to answer.

Well you certainly have all the instruments you require and I could lend you my flux capacitor - but you'll go boom, and I love you too much to let that happen. So I'm not gonna tell you.

Don't worry, though, I can lend you the 50p.

Answer 7

I'm sure you need some cheese as it was cutting cheese to extreme that sparked the possibility of splitting an atom....

Answer 8

1) Cover the knife with bleach
2) Swish through the air.
3) Claim you've done it
4) Insist he proves you haven't done it before you will concede the bet

Answer 9

Put some salt in water. It separates into ions. They are no more atoms.Forunately you have not made a bet to spilit a nucleus.

Answer 10

save about 1000000 people and give up the 50P