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Personal Narrative-Paideia Research Paper

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As it melts in a small saucepan over the flame of the sideburner of the grill in my backyard, it takes on a swirling chromatic luster, like a reflective puddle of gasoline, until all four pounds have be en converted into liquid. It had arrived in my mailbox as two unassuming hunks of gray metal. The original brick must have cracked during transit because the metal exposed along the jigsaw split was bright silver, not the duller shade of the top and bottom faces. My friends and I had no practical intentions, however, we were at the start of a pretty cool project, and one I would like to share as my topic for Paideia. Bismuth, the eighty third element on the periodic table, is a gray, negligibly radioactive metal that is slightly less dense than silver. You’ve probably seen it, sitting idly inside small bins in museum gift shops, or hanging on earrings, necklaces, or bracelets, or even in a brand of over the counter gastrointestinal aids. In most of these contexts, it takes the form of intricate geometric crystals, in “stairstep” patterns of inlaid …show more content…

Bismuth’s melting point - 271°C - is low enough that it can be easily melted over a stove or hot plate, or a sideburner, in our case. After it melted completely, we skimmed the impurities, now floating, from the surface of the liquid, and watched as a thin layer of oxide formed over the exposed plane of molten metal. We turned of the heat, and waited for the metal to begin solidifying. Five minutes elapsed, and the bismuth resembled the cracked surface of a frozen pond. At that point. the crystals were mostly formed, almost touching the bottom of the pan. We had to jostle the floating sheet with a fork to prevent them from setting completely, which would render them impossible to remove cleanly (but we had to be cautious not to damage or further fragment the crystals that are almost ready to be

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