Chapter 10

American Kadics 2

"Hello children. Today we will be studying the Periodic Table of Elements," Ms. Hertz said. "Can any one tell me what Polonium is used for?"

David and Kiva raised their hands. "David, you raise your hand all the time. Let Kiva have a chance," Ms. Hertz said.

"Polonium is a good source of pure alpha radiation because most of its isotopes disintegrate by emitting alpha particles. It is mixed or alloyed with beryllium in nuclear research. The element has also been used in textile mills in devices for eliminating static charges; however, beta sources are used more commonly and are less dangerous," Kiva said.

"Wow. I didn't know some of that. Next question. Can any one tell me about Astatine?"

David raised his hand. "You don't give up do you? Okay, what is Astatine?"

"Astatine is a radioactive element and is the heaviest of the halogens. It was prepared in 1940 by bombarding bismuth with high-energy alpha particles. The first synthesized isotope had an atomic weight of 211 and a half-life of 7.2 hours. Afterwards, astatine-210 was produced. It has a half-life of about 8.3 hours. Additional isotopes of this element have been cataloged with half-lives measured in fractions of a second.
Little uses are known for this element. This highly radioactive halogen behaves chemically like iodine and, like iodine, accumulates in the thyroid," David said with out hesitation.

"How do you two know so much?"

"Well, at home, we would spend every spare second of our time in the library studying about every thing. Then, we ran out of books to read so we went to a public library. We read every book there to. Then, after I won 20,000 US dollars in the lottery, we went to the Library of Congress to read books that we hadn't read. After two months, we had read all the books since we read very fast," David said.

"Also, we read that Kadic Academy was originally supposed to be a house, but the man that was living in it had a daughter and decided to home school her. But then, he died and left the house to his daughter. She decided to make her home into a school for the children of France. She even named it after her father, Jerry Kadic," Kiva said.

"My, oh my. It appears that you to don't even have to be in school."

"We go to school because we would be bored out of our minds at home. Do you have any idea how boring it is in East Texas? It's a good thing the school we go to has a tennis team. Swimming is too easy and tennis is the sport we're good at. We wouldn't be able to be in the exact same classes if it weren't for tennis," David said.

"Well, it seems there's much we could learn about you two. Perhaps some day, you two would like to teach the class instead of a subst-" Ms. Hertz was cut off by the bell.


Lunch

"So, I heard Ms. Hertz talking about you two. You tell her how ya'll know so much?" Taylor said, for he had been there watching them read so much. They were all the best friends in the world. Well, except the Lyoko gang.


P.E.

"Okay. Today, we'll be doing push-ups. I want you all to do fifty. Ready, set, go!" Jim said.

Everyone dropped and started doing push-ups. Jim counted how many Taylor did. He lost count at about 152.

"How are you so petite but incredibly strong and athletic?" Jim said.

"I work out about 30 minutes a day but slowly so I don't look huge. At home, my friends always say that I can go to the next level in my strength and stay the same size. And I can," Taylor said.