rutherfordium

American  

[ruhth-er-fawr-dee-uhm, -fohr-, ruhth-] / ˌrʌð ərˈfɔr di əm, -ˈfoʊr-, ˌrʌθ- /

noun

Chemistry, Physics.

1. a superheavy, synthetic, radioactive element with a very short half-life. Rf; 104.

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rutherfordium British  

/ ˌrʌðəˈfɔːdɪəm /

noun

1. Name in the former Soviet Union: kurchatovium.  a transactinide element produced by bombarding californium-249 nuclei with carbon-12 nuclei. Symbol: Rf; atomic number.: 104; atomic wt: 261

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rutherfordium Scientific  

/ rŭth′ər-fôr′dē-əm /

1. A synthetic, radioactive element that is produced by bombarding plutonium with carbon or neon ions. Its most stable isotope is Rf 261 with a half-life of 62 seconds. Atomic number 104.

2. See Periodic Table

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Etymology

Origin of rutherfordium

First recorded in 1965–70; officially assigned to element 104 in 1997; named after English physicist Ernest Rutherford; -ium ( def. )

Example Sentences

Over the course of 30 years, his inventions contributed to the discovery of americium, curium, berkelium, californium, einsteinium, fermium, mendelevium, nobelium, lawrencium, rutherfordium, dubnium and seaborgium.

From New York Times

Many are named after great scientists: einsteinium, curium, fermium, mendelevium, bohrium and rutherfordium.

From BBC

Out go thorium, uranium and plutonium, along with a whole bestiary of synthetically-created elements - rutherfordium, seaborgium, ununpentium, einsteinium - which only ever exist momentarily as part of a lab experiment, before radioactively decomposing.

From BBC