by Mai Foringer

Americium is radioactive, and can be artificially made.

Americium has a half-life of 432 years.

This element was named after Americans with an analogy with the other element, Europium.

Americium is so powerful that if 1 gram is used for a smoke detector, and if it's active enough, this element can be used in 3 million smoke detectors

AM

243

Smoke detectors!

Portable Gamma Rays!

Americium at room temperature would be in a pile. It is silvery gray, and is shiny like a nickel!

Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Leon O. Morgan, and Albert Ghiroso found the element in Chicago, Illinois in 1944.

Boiling Point: 4724 degrees fahrenheit

Glenn T. Seaborg, and his friends found Americium, they had mixed plutonium, with the neutrons from plutonium -241, which then decayed, and Americium-241 became an element.