Packet 10: Tossup 11

Due to its stiffness and resistance to decay from radiation, this element is the main component of the Large Hadron Collider’s beampipes. In 2009, Michael Heaven found that this element’s dimer uniquely does not follow a Morse potential, solving an 80-year-old chemical modeling challenge. At room temperature, this element’s chloride is a solid composed of one-dimensional polymers of interlocking (10[1])tetrahedra. Materion, one of the world’s only suppliers of this (10[1])poorly understood element, produces aerospace components (10[1])made of it (-5[1])like the hexagonal mirrors (10[1])on the James Webb (10[2])Telescope. (10[3])This element’s (10[1])transparency to ionizing radiation (10[1])makes it one of the only (10[1])materials suitable for X-ray windows. Emerald and aquamarine (10[2])are derived (10[1])from this element’s (10[2])namesake mineral. For 10 points, (10[1])what lightest alkaline earth metal (10[1])has atomic (10[2])number 4? (10[1])■END■ (10[2])

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