In the book The Periodic Kingdom by P.W. Atkins went through the journey into the land of chemical elements. Atkins divided his book into three parts: Geography, History, and Government and Institutions. It provided a lot of good information that we study in Chemistry or in any other science classes related to the periodic table and helped to understand the concept much better. In the Geography section he talked about the characteristics about each element in every region and how they are used in real life. In the History section he talked about the history and discovery of the elements, and also mentioned several scientists and their discoveries. And, finally the last section that is Government and institution in which he went on talking …show more content…
Alkali metals such as sodium, which is an essential component of the nervous system and brain, and without it we wouldn’t function as humans but rather like plants. Next, he talks about the alkaline earth metals such as Calcium and states that it is also a component of nervous system, but it also is a characteristic of construction. Then he went on talking about the Eastern Rectangle elements, which are in the east and how they are important in our life. And, at last in the chapter Physical Geography he talked briefly about the how the atoms are distinguished by their masses and their diameters. To give a perfect understanding of it he provided different visuals. Also, he talked about how the kingdom is plotted in terms of the ionization energies of the elements and how it increases from west to east across the kingdom and decreases from north to …show more content…
Copper, though known for millennia, takes its name, via the Latin Cuprum, from Cyprus, where much was found” (59). He then also talk about some of the elements colors for example chlorine a pale yellow-green gas and iodine, which is a violet solid. He then went on talking about how hydrogen was the first element to be formed and soon as the island of hydrogen appeared, the Northerner Cape of Helium appeared. After these two elements were formed millions of years passed everything remained the same and no elements were formed. Then later on the formation of stars opened up new opportunities and lithium and beryllium were formed. Atkins in chapter The Origin of the Land he mentioned a process called resonance and he defined it, as “the effect that lets one pendulum couple strongly to another pendulum of the same frequency, and by extension is the coupling between a nucleus and a proton of the appropriate energy” (71). And, he tells the readers that without resonance there would be no life because a lot cabon has formed. He even tells us that in a few or hundred years Atlantis will be found which would be a good achievement but not of
In "Energy Story" uses an explanation of atoms and tells us the parts of an atom and its structure. In the text it
The introduction of the book is very intriguing, making readers want to read more. It is in fact one of my favorite parts of the book, telling how Kean’s love for the periodic table and its elements started. It then jumps into giving useful facts and information that I was oblivious to. The geography of the elements is told, where they are located and the importance of their
Just as the title of the chapter suggests, the main focus of Chapter 11 is how elements found on the Periodic Table are not always what they appear. Kean begins this chapter with describing how elements can be unpredictable in some conditions, and uses example from the past to...
Although some of the elements have been known for thousands of years, our understanding of many elements is still young. Mendeleev’s first Periodic Table contained only 63 elements, and about that many were discovered in the following 100 years. Just like countries, emperors, philosophers, and cities, elements have histories, too.“The Disappearing spoon” by Sam Kean, is a detailed history of the elements on the Periodic Table. Kean does a important job of telling every single element’s journey throughout the history of mankind: from the earliest times, when chemistry was intermingled with alchemy, to these days of modern chemistry. For example: Thallium is considered the deadliest element, pretending to be potassium to gain entry into our cells where it then breaks amino acid bonds within proteins. The CIA once developed a plan to poison Fidel Castro by dosing his socks with thallium-tainted
We all know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover.” Similarly, every element in the periodic table has its’ own story and its’ own unique meaning. However, the average high schooler simply associates these elements as something used in their chemistry classes. In fact, the elements seen on the periodic table actually have much more to do in our daily lives and in history than most people know. While giving a whole new perspective to the meaning of Chemistry, author Sam Kean successfully recounts the hidden tales through humor and wit in his bestselling novel The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of Elements. Specifically, Chapter 15, “An Element of Madness,” addresses the lives of several “mad scientists” associated with selenium, manganese, palladium, barium, and roentgenium that ultimately led to their downfall.
The Beryllium element, an alkaline earth metal which belongs to group II of the periodic table, was first discovered in 1798 by L.M. Vauquelin. Vauquelin,a French chemist, was doing work with aluminum and noticed a white powder that was nothing like that of aluminum or any of its derivatives. Vauquelin named this mystery powder, gluinium because of its sweet taste was like that of glucose. In 1828, Wohler, a German metallurgist reduced it to its metallic form and renamed it beryllium.(figure 2)
The novel The Disappearing Spoon was written by Sam Kean, Sam is an American author, professor, and philosopher who is best known for his exploration of questions regarding love, life, religion, and being a man in contemporary society.In his book, he talks about the history, madness and love of the periodic table and their elements. The chapter that I am going to be reviewing today is chapter 12 of his novel. This particular chapter talks about political elements and about how the elements on the periodic table embody our frustrations and flaws in economics, psychology, arts and politics.
Elements are the basic building blocks of matter due to the fact that they are chemically the simplest substances. Whether we can find them in the air or in our gold/silver necklaces, elements are everywhere! One essential element is hydrogen, the first element on the period table (located under Group 1 as an alkaline metal) is composed of a single proton and electron; therefore having an atomic number and atomic mass of 1 and electron configuration of 1s1. In fact, hydrogen is the lightest, simplest and most commonly found chemical element in the universe (it makes up about 90% of the universe by weight). Interestingly enough, the heavier elements on the periodic table were either made from hydrogen or other elements that were made from hydrogen. The most common isotope formed of hydrogen is protium, with 1 proton and no neutrons. Hydrogen can also exist as both positively or negatively charged. The physical form of hydrogen at room temperature is a colorless and odorless gas. Hydrogen gas is extremely flammable and because of this chemical property, it is used as fuel for the main engine of space shuttles. Hydrogen is an important element and has received a lot of recognition throughout history for its usefulness.
When Donald B. Kraybill wrote the Upside Down Kingdom 38 years ago, he created a book and shares a unique perspective on things about Jesus and his disciples from an angel most of us aren’t used to exploring. The main point (thesis) that Kraybill develops in his book is that kingdom of God demonstrated by Jesus through his teachings the importance of practicing religious principles. Jesus focused on serving others and considered those his winnings. It’s admirable to know that even though Jesus reached glories victories through his teachings and devotion to God, he never allowed anything to shift him into a different direction. Everything he did served a purpose, and though it was questionable by many, ultimately he always reveled his reasoning
Every human has a natural tendency to organize. The periodic table is a perfect example of how organization betters the scientific world. Much like a poem, it tells a significant amount of information in a condescended fashion. With this map of the basic elements of the universe, we can find out how many electrons the element has and how much it weighs. Each element has its own separate set of such data; no two elements are the same.
The writings of some Greek philosophers may be considered to be among the very first chemical theories, such as the theory that all things are composed of air, earth, fire, and water. Each of these were represented by different elements, such as sulfur, salt, mercury, and, ideally, gold. Other ideas held by alchemists were that each of the known elements were represented by heavenly bodies. Gold was earth's representation of the sun, silver for the moon, mercury for the planet Mercury, copper for Venus, iron for Mars, tin for Jupiter, and lead for Saturn.
The Periodic Table is based around the Atomic Theory. Firstly people believed that everything was made up the four elements Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. This theory evolved into everything being made up of atoms. Breakthroughs throughout history such as the discoveries of the nucleus, protons, neutrons and electrons have pushed this theory forward to where it is today.
Dalton’s atomic theory says that each element contained its own number of atoms. Each element had its own size and weight. Dalton’s idea said that all things are made of small bits of matter this bits of matter where too small to be seen even with a microscope. Scientist began to think these small bits of matter where responsible for chemical changes. They thought that when these bits of matter combined a chemical change took place. Dalton assumed that there was a special pattern in the elements and was partly responsible for the periodic table.
Then both Meyer and Mendeleyev built periodic tables alone, Meyer more impressed by the periodicity of physical properties, while Mendeleyev was more interested in the chemical properties. Then Mendeleyev had published his periodic table and his law in 1869 and forecasted the properties of the missing elements, and chemists then began to be grateful for it when the discovery of elements was predicted by the table that had taken place. Although, periodic tables have always been related to the way scientists thought about the shape and structure of the atom, and has changed over the years exactly for that reason.
The Periodic Table of Elements is commonly used today when studying elements. This table’s history begins in ancient times when Greek scientists first started discovering different elements. Over the years, many different forms of the periodic table have been made which set the basis for the modern table we use today. This table includes over 100 elements and are arranged by groups and periods. Groups being vertical columns and periods being horizontal columns. With all of the research conducted over the years and the organization of this table, it is easy to use when needed.