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I should have thought that Greenwood and Earnshaw was a more reliable source than chemistryexplained.com. The oxidation explanation has been given by many others, but was already refuted in 1984. Addison's The Chemistry of the Liquid Alkali Metals explains: "When free from surface contamination, the metals Li, Na, K and Rb are silver-bright and lustrous. Caesium, however, is pale gold in colour in both solid and liquid states; coupled with the low density, and the low viscosity of the liquid, it surely must be the most attractive element in the periodic table. Earlier workers attributed the colour to the presence of trace amounts of oxide impurity, and certainly the gold colour does darken on the addition of oxygen. However, intensive purification of the metal by all available methods in the writer's laboratory over several years has not succeeded in removing the colour, and we have no doubt that caesium metal is indeed pale golden in colour." An explanation in terms of sd overlaps follows. I've reinstated the statement of golden-yellow colour. (Similarly, the heavy alkaline earth metals Ca, Sr, Ba are pale yellow, as are the divalent lanthanides Eu and Yb.) Double sharp (talk) 09:11, 16 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
1. Look at the image in the article. Does that look "pale yellow" to you?
2. One chemist's failure to remove the yellow color experimentally is not "refutation" of the assertion that the pure metal is colorless. It shows only that total purification is a formidable challenge.
3. And, if, as you say, the heavy alkaline earth metals Ca, Sr, Ba are pale yellow, as are the divalent lanthanides Eu and Yb, then the wiki article on copper should say so, should not say "copper is one of only four elements with a color" as it does.
I agree that chemistryexplained.com can't be taken as a definitive source here. Nor does looking at images online really help; exact colour reproduction is notoriously unreliable. But for what its worth, I think the image does indeed look slightly yellowish. SpinningSpark00:04, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Exact colour reproduction is horribly unreliable for this sort of thing: at least we're not dealing with spectra, which would be completely impossible. And yet, the picture does look yellowish enough to tell, and the fact is already long since standard: everyone who is an actual chemistry professor is quoting it, and it is in such standard texts as Greenwood and Earnshaw's Chemistry of the Elements. I will change the copper article. Double sharp (talk) 06:28, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Well this may not be exactly relevant and I'm not trying to be rude here, only entertaining, BUT, having said that.... LOL LOL the actual chemistry professor in your link (Richard Kaner of UCLA) says cesium is "the only other metal besides gold and copper that is not silvery in color." BUT osmium is blue!! (Wrawwwwwng, Prof!) HandsomeMrToad (talk) 09:54, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Possible resolution/consensus: how about describing the question of the color of cesium as CONTROVERSIAL (both here and in the wiki article on copper)? Some sources say pale yellow, others say colorless, the truth is very difficult to measure because it's hard to verify that a sample is really pure of oxides. HandsomeMrToad (talk) 09:47, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Osmium is a bit blue rather than pure metallic-silver according to our article text, and its photo, and all over the internet. DMacks (talk) 11:02, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Emsley, John (2001). Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements. New York: Oxford University Press.
Greenwood, Norman N., and Earnshaw, A. (1997). Chemistry of the Elements , 2nd edition. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Lide, David R., ed. (2000). CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics , 81st edition. New York: CRC Press.
Double sharp says that this Greenwood and Shaw ref actually says it's actually gold. I just checked the Emsley ref's entry for ""Caesium or Cesium (USA)", which states that it is "gold-coloured" without further qualification. Anyone have a CRC handy? DMacks (talk) 11:13, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Here is the quote from Greenwood and Earnshaw (p. 74): "All [group 1 metals] are silvery-white except caesium which is golden yellow; in fact, caesium is one of only three metallic elements which are intensely coloured, the other two being copper and gold (see also pp. 112, 1177, 1232 [these pages detail some of the less intensely coloured metals, like Ca, Co, Zn, Sr, Cd, Ba, Eu, Yb])." Double sharp (talk) 12:44, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think that it is reasonable to describe the issue as controversial, unless there are some recent RS saying, for instance, that Greenwood & Earnshaw (or whoever) are talking out of the wrong orifice. Or we have an RS that out and out declares that the issue is controversial. Using out of date or not so reliable sources is not good enough to demonstrate a controversy. Saying in the article that there is a controversy without something reliable to back it up is WP:SYNTH. SpinningSpark15:44, 17 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]
an attempt to be helpful Comment
as proven in other articles (thankfully few) i have been proven to know very little about how to 'set things out' in wikipedia... however this comment is intended to help. last thing i want ever is to start a war. so please dont get the wrong idea.
im no scientist - i really only know stuff from looking it up. this article says caesium is one of five elements...
i googled 'what elements are liquid at room temperature' and got the following answer.
Liquids around room temperature. The only liquid elements at standard temperature and pressure are bromine (Br) and mercury (Hg). Although, elements caesium (Cs), rubidium (Rb), Francium (Fr) and Gallium (Ga) become liquid at or just above room temperature.
my knowledge isnt near good enough to debate. i wanted only to comment and hope someone found it useful, then go away.
have a great day.
