# mmm..Radon Potato Chips! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 18, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481 "2007-01-18T18:17:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/1 "2007-01-18T18:17:31Z")
As you may know, potato chip makers fill their bags before sealing with nitrogen gas to preserve freshness. Pranksters that we are, we have replaced one bag’s nitrogen with Radon gas and sent it on its way. A week later Joe Munchie gets the bag, opens it and eats the chips. Delicious! I pretty much know the answer, but what do you think will happen, and why? ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/2 "2007-01-18T18:19:13Z")
[QUOTE=AtomicDog] As you may know, potato chip makers fill their bags before sealing with nitrogen gas to preserve freshness. Pranksters that we are, we have replaced one bag’s nitrogen with Radon gas and sent it on its way. A week later Joe Munchie gets the bag, opens it and eats the chips. Delicious! I pretty much know the answer, but what do you think will happen, and why? [/QUOTE] Joe Munchie is going to have one hell of a time selling his house…? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/3 "2007-01-18T18:46:09Z")
In addition to switching their coffee to Folgers, we’ve secretly replaced these potato chip eaters’ nonradioactive inert gas with Radon. Let’s see if they can tell the difference… ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/4 "2007-01-18T19:08:28Z")
Well, it has a half-life of 3.8 days. So does this mean that by the time Joe opens the bag most of the stuff will be inactive? ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/5 "2007-01-18T19:14:23Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] Well, it has a half-life of 3.8 days. So does this mean that by the time Joe opens the bag most of the stuff will be inactive? [/QUOTE] No, because half life generally just means it decays into another isotope, which may well be radioactive itself. Looking at the U238-Thorium-234 chain, it looks like any of the radon that DOES decay will shortly end up as Lead 210, which is not stable, but has a half-life of 22.3 years. So the chips will be surrounded by clouds of powdered lead, perhaps, and the bag and its surroundings will have been hit by alpha particles and beta particles from the decaying radioactive matter. DEFINITELY not reccomended by the surgeon general. (This is assuming Radon 222 was used, as Leaffan implied, since that’s the isotope with the 3.8 day halflife.) ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/6 "2007-04-21T17:20:32Z")
Sorry for bumping this thread; I just realized that I never delivered the payoff. The answer is that you do get some lead, but also a lot of polonium-covered potato chips. Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/7 "2007-04-21T17:41:46Z")
Moving thread from IMHO to Mundane Pointless Glowing Stuff I Must Share. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/8 "2007-04-21T17:52:28Z")
Does this mean that the bag would be under a vacuum by the time it got to the customer? ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/9 "2007-04-21T19:03:27Z")
Joe Munchie turns into The Incredible Potato Hulk? ---
**Author:** ![citybadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/45deac/32.png) [@citybadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citybadger)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/10 "2007-04-21T19:21:52Z")
With a half-life of only 3.8 days, a bag full of pure radon I think would be intensely radioactive. Would the stockboy at the grocer get radiation burns? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Vorlon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/11 "2007-04-21T20:29:48Z")
The bag would stop alpha, and if it was metalic, the beta, and by the time it hit the shelves from the plant, a good chumk of whatever gamma would be comming out would be decayed ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/12 "2007-04-21T20:33:59Z")
The chips would be cloaked in a doomsday shroud of Cobalt Thorium G. ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/13 "2007-04-21T20:46:26Z")
Hey, dude, I’m not gonna eat those chips. The radon is stale. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mmm-radon-potato-chips/388481/14 "2007-04-21T21:41:34Z")
your hair falls out, but you get [10 turns of +30 moxie](http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/Radium-flavored_potato_chips)