Thorium | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2018-12-08

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Thorium


00:01:58 1 Bulk properties
00:05:41 2 Isotopes
00:10:59 2.1 Radiometric dating
00:12:53 3 Chemistry
00:15:51 3.1 Reactivity
00:17:09 3.2 Inorganic compounds
00:19:57 3.3 Coordination compounds
00:20:12 3.4 Organothorium compounds
00:22:25 4 Occurrence
00:22:56 4.1 Formation
00:23:05 4.2 On Earth
00:24:48 5 History
00:25:55 5.1 Erroneous report
00:26:04 5.2 Discovery
00:29:27 5.3 Initial chemical classification
00:29:37 5.4 First uses
00:29:49 5.5 Radioactivity
00:30:43 5.6 Further classification
00:32:28 5.7 Phasing out
00:33:27 5.8 Nuclear power
00:34:07 5.9 Nuclear weapons
00:36:08 6 Production
00:37:55 6.1 Concentration
00:38:54 6.1.1 Acid digestion
00:40:19 6.1.2 Alkaline digestion
00:40:58 6.2 Purification
00:41:58 7 Modern applications
00:43:39 8 Potential use for nuclear energy
00:45:19 8.1 Advantages
00:47:18 8.2 Disadvantages
00:48:07 9 Hazards
00:52:30 9.1 Radiological
00:54:07 9.2 Biological
00:55:42 9.3 Chemical
00:58:42 9.4 Exposure routes
00:58:51 10 Notes
01:00:50 11 References
01:02:21 12 Bibliography
01:03:27 13 Further reading



Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.

Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain

Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.

You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKfABj2eGyjH3ntPxp4YeQ

You can upload your own Wikipedia articles through:
https://github.com/nodef/wikipedia-tts



"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
- Socrates



SUMMARY
=======
Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately hard, malleable, and has a high melting point. Thorium is an electropositive actinide whose chemistry is dominated by the +4 oxidation state; it is quite reactive and can ignite in air when finely divided.
All known thorium isotopes are unstable. The most stable isotope, 232Th, has a half-life of 14.05 billion years, or about the age of the universe; it decays very slowly via alpha decay, starting a decay chain named the thorium series that ends at stable 208Pb. In the universe, thorium and uranium are the only two radioactive elements that still occur naturally in large quantities as primordial elements. It is estimated to be over three times more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust, and is chiefly refined from monazite sands as a by-product of extracting rare-earth metals.
Thorium was discovered in 1829 by the Norwegian amateur mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Its first applications were developed in the late 19th century. Thorium's radioactivity was widely acknowledged during the first decades of the 20th century. In the second half of the century, thorium was replaced in many uses due to concerns about its radioactivity.
Thorium is still being used as an alloying element in TIG welding electrodes but is slowly being replaced in the field with different compositions. It was also a material in high-end optics and scientific instrumentation, and as the light source in gas mantles, but these uses have become marginal. It has been suggested as a replacement for uranium as nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors, and several thorium reactors have been built.