Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann discovered fission by bombarding uranium with neutrons. Their discovery was made possible by finding one of the fission products, barium (Ba, atomic no. = 56). What is a reasonable explanation for why they were unable to initially observe the other product, krypton (Kr, atomic no. = 36)?
A. The isotope of krypton generated might have a short half-life and had undergone radioactive decay to some other element.
B. Krypton is a noble gas and therefore chemically unreactive, making it difficult to characterize by chemical means.
C. Krypton is a noble gas and it may have diffused out of the sample.
D. both A and B
E. all of the above
Answer: E
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