The Periodic Table:

At first glance the periodic table may just appear to be a table with all of the elements on it. With a closer look a person might notice that the elements are numbered from 1 on up towards 118. But why are the elements arranged in this funny table with a block on the bottom that isn't attached to anything? A man named Dimitri Mendeleev was the person who created this funny looking table and it is now probably the most valuable tool in chemistry. He put together the periodic table in 1869. The periodic table can tell you many things about the elements with just a quick glance. You can determine the atomic symbol, the atomic mass, the atomic number, the electron configuration, and many other pieces of valuable information of any element on the face of the earth with a little knowledge and some practice. All it really is, is a way of organizing the elements in a logical order.

There is a lot to learn about the periodic table and it is hard to teach. The best way for the reader to learn about the periodic table is to take a chemistry class, but hopefully this web page will give the reader a glimpse at the magnificent world of chemistry.

Atomic Symbol:

The atomic symbol of an element is a one or two letter abbreviation of the element. The first letter is always capitalized and if there is a second letter it is always in lowercase form. Some elements like gold and silver are not abbreviated with G or Si, because they're Latin names are abbreviated from instead.

Atomic Mass:

Atomic mass is the exact mass of an atom in atomic mass units. The atomic mass unit is a mass equal to 1/12 the mass of a carbon-12 atom and it is abbreviated with a "u". Unfortunately the elements do not go in increments of one

Element Number:

The elements are numbered from 1-118 in order the of the amount of electrons they have. Hydrogen has 1 electron orbiting the nucleus of the atom, so it is the first element. Ununoctium has 118 electrons orbiting its nucleus, so it is the 118th element.

Standard State:

Matter exists in three phases, solid, liquid, and gas. Elements are the simplest forms of matter and they exist only in those three states. When discussing the state of elements, it is assumed to be at STP or standard temperature and pressure. Standard temperature is 0 degrees Celsius and standard pressure is 101.3 kPa (kilo Pascal). Most of the elements are in a solid state. Bromine and Mercury are the only two elements found at liquid state. The noble gasses, found on the far right side of the graph, are all in gaseous form along with a few other nonmetals.

Standard Type:

Standard type refers to the pH of an element. pH runs on a scale of 1-14 and 7 is neutral. Below seven is acidic and above seven is basic.

Oxidation States:

Oxidation number refers to the reactivity of an element. It's a rather complicated idea to explain, but basically elements try to imitate the noble gasses. They do this by either losing or gaining electrons so they have similar electron configurations of the noble gasses. The nonmetals want to gain electrons and the metals usually want to lose them. The elements on the far left of the table are the most reactive metals (called alkali metals, excluding hydrogen) and the elements on the 2nd, farthest right group are the most reactive nonmetals (called halogens).

Boiling Point:

Boiling point is the temperature at which an element turns from liquid to gas or visa versa.

Melting Point:

Melting point is the temperature at which an element turns from solid to liquid or visa versa.

Density:

Density refers to how tightly packed the atoms of an element are. Gases are not dense, while metals like gold are very dense.

Electron Configuration:

Electron configuration is another hard idea to explain. Basically, electrons orbit the nucleus of an element. The nucleus is composed of protons and neutrons. Protons have a positive charge and neutrons are neutral. Electrons have a negative charge and that is why the atom stays together. The larger the atomic number the more electrons an element has. Rather than just are cramming together they have what are called orbitals to follow. There are s, p, d, and f orbitals and they all have more than level. The first electrons orbit on the lower orbitals and the last ones on the higher orbitals. Noble Gases are very stable because they have filled electron orbitals and that is why the other elements try to lose and gain electrons to imitate them.

Acid/Base Properties:

Refers to the pH of an element. (see Standard Type)

Crystal Structures:

Crystals are geometric forms that have plane surfaces that are at definite angles to another. They are solid and are formed when elements are combined. An excellent example is table salt which is formed by combining sodium and chlorine to make sodium chloride.

Electronegativity:

Electronegativity is a measure of the ability of an atom of an element that is chemically combined with another element to attract electrons to itself. That's basically just fancy mumbo-jumbo to say how "greedy" an element is. The alkali metals are the least greedy because they want to lose an electron to be more like a noble gas, but the halogens are very greedy. Fluorine is the most greedy element because it "wants" an electron more than any other element.

Heat of Vaporization:

The heat of vaporization is the amount of energy it takes to turn a substance from liquid to gas. It depends on the temperature of the liquid because obviously it will take more energy to raise the temperature of water from 30 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees than it would take to raise water at 90 degrees Celsius to 100 degrees.

Heat of Fusion:

The heat of fusion is very similar to the heat of vaporization only it deals with the amount of energy needed to turn a solid substance into a liquid one.

Electrical Conductivity:

Electrical conductivity deals with whether or not electricity will pass through a substance. In chemistry there are ionic and non-ionic compounds. Ionic compounds are created when a nonmetallic element and a metallic element are combined. Non ionic compounds are usually a pure substance such as oxygen. Generally, when dissolved in water, non-ionic compounds will not conduct electricity while ionic compounds will.

Thermal Conductivity:

Thermal conductivity is the rate at which two elements react. It is different for all elements. The halogens and alkali metals have high thermal conductivity.

Specific Heat Capacity:

Specific heat is the amount of energy it takes to raise one gram of a substance by one degree Celsius. It differs with different substances, but water has one of the highest specific heat capacities.

First Ionization Potential:

The first ionization energy is the amount of energy required to take away the most loosely held electron from an element. The alkali metals have the lowest first ionization potentials and the halogens have the highest.

Atomic Volume:

Volume deals with the amount of space an object takes up. Atomic volume is the amount of space an atom takes up.

Covalent Radius:

Covalent radius is the distance between the nucleus of the atom and its valence shell when that atom has formed a covalent bond by the sharing of electrons. A covalent bond a bond where two atoms "share" a/an electron(s).

Synthetic:

Elements that are synthetic are artificially created. Most synthetic elements are created by scientists, but some are created accidently as bi-products of nuclear experiments.