2019! The International Year of the Periodic Table. Part 1

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The Periodic Table

We are barely a week into 2019 and already there are big science events happening. All of them so far have been about space. With the NASA probe passing the most distant place we gone and the Chinese landing a probe on the far side of the moon... But, hang on... This year is the International Year of the Periodic Table! We are bringing awareness to the most simple of tools in science.

Dmitry Mendeleev
(Credit: Wikipedia)
2019 marks 150 years since the Russian chemist - Dmitry Mendeleev, developed the periodic system. And who doesn't know the periodic table. It's introduced at GSCE level. I'm pretty sure that you have all seen the periodic table by your science or chemistry lessons at high school. I understand that there will be some people who have forgotten about school. But in my experience, Chemistry was one of the more impressive subjects. The colour changing solutions, dropping potassium and sodium into bowls of water as well as the various burning of things. Well, this simple table is one of the most significant achievements in science. It not just captures the basis of chemistry. But, both of the other branches of science - Biology and Physics, have some use for the periodic table. It's a unique yet very simple tool which scientists use daily. It helps them to predict the appearance and properties of the matter found on the Earth.

Due to the importance of this anniversary, I plan to do several blog post on the periodic table seen as this is an International Year. Although, I won't be covering the creator yet. This is due to Dmitry Mendeleev's birthday being on the 8th of February. I think we should wait until the big day, it's only a month away.

I thought that I might start with the basics. On what it is...

The Periodic Table
As you can see from the photo above, there are many different groups within the table. On the table above I counted 10 groups. The difficultly in the table is that many of them overlap from the basic knowledge from GSCEs. Most of you were probably taught a few of the groups such as, the first row of the table, starting with Lithium (top) and finishing with Francium (bottom), was the alkali metals. Then the Transitional metals - which in this table is coded with the light green colour and for some reason not a column. The other groups which you should know are the Halogen group at column 7 (In dark blue) and the Nobel Gases at column 8 (Purple). But, as you can see, there are many other groups on that table.

The Alkali Metals - Li to Fr

The alkali metals (otherwise known as group 1) all have only one electron on the last ring their atom. This means that all of these the elements share the same features. They react so violently with water in order to make alkali (or Bases if you're a scientist. Yes, scientists love to alter names of things). If you've ever been lucky to watch someone drop potassium or sodium into water - then you should know they only get more violent when you head down the table. Don't believe me, click the link - Rubidium

Want to watch them all...? Click Here.

Why is the chemical reaction so violent?
Well, the metal element wants to bind with Oxygen (in group 6 (or16)) to complete it's outer shell. So in water - which is basically H2O, is suck all of oxygen leaving the very violent Hydrogen as a gas form. It's Hydrogen that causes the explosions.

The Transitional Metals - The light green section. Sc to Cn

These elements falls within column 3 to column 10 on the periodic table. These are metal element that share the basic properties of metals which you would expect.
  • Conduct electricity
  • Shiny
These elements are also generally stronger, harder as well as having a higher density and melting point then any of the other metal elements in the table. However, this description is very general. All of the transitional elements show different levels of properties.
Unlike their group 1 metal buddies, they don't react with oxygen or water just as vigorously. Some like copper and iron will slowly alter with the presences of Oxygen and water. Though some won't react at all. 

Halogen

 This group falls on column 17 on the periodic table and is affectionally called group 7. Halogen basically means salt former. It consists of five elements,
  • Florine (F)
  • Chlorine (Cl)
  • Bromine (Br)
  • Iodine (I)
  • Astatine (As)
Nobel Gases


This group falls on the last common of the periodic table and are group 18 (The Purple squares). These elements are all odourless, colourless and hardly ever react to any other element. There are six noble gases in the column,
  • Helium (He)
  • Neon (Ne)
  • Argon (Ar)
  • Krypton (Kr)
  • Xenon (Xe)
  • Radon (Rn)
Links
The Periodic Table Song (updated)

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