"Helium is notoriously difficult to contain. Its atoms are some of the tiniest in the universe."
It's a good article, and I learned a lot, but every so often it reads like something an 8th grader would write the night before their paper is due.
It's a good article, and I learned a lot, but every so often it reads like something an 8th grader would write the night before their paper is due.
Plenty of "unscathed" around, but I don't think I ever met the "un"-free word.
Reminds me of the P.G.Wodehouse "far from gruntled" ( https://nydamprintsblackandwhite.blogspot.com/2011/05/words-... )
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/07/25/how-i-met-my-w...
Li+, Be++, B+++ are tinier than He, but they are ions, not neutral atoms. Neutral Li, Be, B are bigger than He, because they have an additional electron layer. Both neutral H and H- are bigger than He, because their one or two electrons are attracted less by a proton than by a He nucleus with double charge. H+ is just a bare proton, so it is orders of magnitude smaller than any other ion, but it is not a neutral atom.
So He is indeed the smallest neutral atom.
Is neon more plentiful than helium?
Edit: No.
"...neon is comparatively scarce on Earth... It is primarily obtained through the fractional distillation of liquid air, making it significantly more expensive than helium due to air being its sole source."