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Asked by totallygnarly to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 18 Mar 2011.
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Charlie Ryan answered on 16 Mar 2011:
hi again totallygnarly! Sorry but no i don’t think it is. A metal is an element, like gold or aluminium. To change one element into another you have two options – either nuclear fission or fusion. fission splits heavy elements like uranium into smaller parts (like a nuclear reactor), whilst fusion combines light elements, like hydrogen (as in the sun). Both are pretty difficult to do though and i don’t do either!
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Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:
Hi Totallygnarly
No. Hundreds of years ago people believed that alchemists could turn base metals (like lead) into gold, but lead atoms are destined to always remain lead atoms, and the same goes for all metals. Pity.
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Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:
Some metals are alloys of other metals, but converting elements into other elements is something you need a nuclear reaction to do.
Metals into gold though, would be the trick – lots of “scientists” over the years said they could do that one!
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Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:
What you refer to here I think is something called alchemy – this was popular in the middle ages when learned people (the precursors of modern scientists I presume) were on a quest to be able to turn base metal such as copper into gold. This was quickly debunked however and to my knowledge there is no way to turn one metal into another.
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Eoin Lettice answered on 18 Mar 2011:
I’m not a chemist, but I don’t think so. You can mix them together to make other types of materials called alloys, but I don’t think you can convert one to another!
I might be proved wrong though!Eoin
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