Rainstorm1031 wrote:I always interpretted radium as radii or something like that... I never once thought of a radiation connection... I think what the data really is, is confirming the magnitude of Halo's destruction, or the size of it... the radius of the "blast".
I would think that they would just use "radii" then. No matter how you say it, radium cannot be connected with radii.
I think it may mean actually Radium. On earth today , Radium (Ra) is used as a
radiation standard. Since it was (one of) the first radioactive substance ever found and concentrated, today other radioactive substances can be stated in "mg Ra".
I'm in nuclear medicine, and if you have, say, a 100 mCi (wiki the unit) source of Cesium-137, you say you have X mg Ra, which is the unit which the doctors use.
So, this could explain the {check} part also. I think it literally means that the Radium is used to check the systems in the Halo. If you are going to check the system, do you use the main standard, or do you use some random substance which requires some extra work in your calculations?
The standard. Whether it has to do with the actual firing, or the measurement of its firing, such as a radiation detector, is pure speculation.