strontium
a bivalent, metallic element whose compounds resemble those of calcium, found in nature only in the combined state, as in strontianite: used in fireworks, flares, and tracer bullets. Symbol: Sr; atomic weight: 87.62; atomic number: 38; specific gravity: 2.6.
Origin of strontium
1Other words from strontium
- stron·tic [stron-tik], /ˈstrɒn tɪk/, adjective
Words Nearby strontium
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use strontium in a sentence
Instead, their foundation is pancake-like structures of super-chilled strontium atoms.
The most precise atomic clocks ever are proving Einstein right—again | Rahul Rao | February 17, 2022 | Popular-ScienceWhen people eat and drink in a specific area for a long time, their teeth absorb a small amount of strontium, an element that leaches out of the rocky ground into food and drinking water.
How technology helped archaeologists dig deeper | Annalee Newitz | April 28, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewHe and colleagues first boiled a lump of strontium metal and channeled that vapor down a tube.
Using a second laser, the researchers knocked an electron off each atom, creating a plasma of negatively charged electrons and positive strontium ions.
I placed the steel tank near the cage, uncoiled the hose attachment, unscrewed the top, and dumped in the salts of strontium.
In Search of the Unknown | Robert W. Chambers
In the absence of baryta or lime it is filtered off, and weighed as strontium carbonate, which contains 70.17 per cent.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerThe solution contains the barium as baric chloride mixed, perhaps, with salts of strontium or lime.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerIn this last case it may be examined for barium and strontium, the former of which will rarely be present.
A Textbook of Assaying: For the Use of Those Connected with Mines. | Cornelius Beringer and John Jacob BeringerIt was established that strontium-90 and cesium-137, important in fallout on land, enter the marine cycles only in minute amounts.
Atoms, Nature, and Man | Neal O. Hines
British Dictionary definitions for strontium
/ (ˈstrɒntɪəm) /
a soft silvery-white element of the alkaline earth group of metals, occurring chiefly in celestite and strontianite. Its compounds burn with a crimson flame and are used in fireworks. The radioisotope strontium-90, with a half-life of 28.1 years, is used in nuclear power sources and is a hazardous nuclear fall-out product. Symbol: Sr; atomic no: 38; atomic wt: 87.62; valency: 2; relative density: 2.54; melting pt: 769°C; boiling pt: 1384°C
Origin of strontium
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for strontium
[ strŏn′chē-əm, -tē-əm ]
A soft, silvery metallic element of the alkaline-earth group that occurs naturally only as a sulfate or carbonate. One of its isotopes is used in the radiometric dating of rocks. Because strontium salts burn with a red flame, they are used to make fireworks and signal flares. Atomic number 38; atomic weight 87.62; melting point 777°C; boiling point 1,382°C; specific gravity 2.54; valence 2. See Periodic Table.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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