The Periodic Table Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Elements

Pdf Book Name: The Periodic Table Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Elements
Author: DK
Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
ISBN-10, 13: 1465456600,9781465456601
Year: 2017
Pages: 208 / 210 Pages
Language: English
File size: 58 MB
File format: PDF,EPUB

The Periodic Table Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of the Elements Pdf Book Description:

There are 118 elements in the periodic table; 92 of them are found in nature, while the others are made by humans. Every element is unique. Most of the elements are solids, like the metals. At room temperature, 11 elements are gases, while bromine and mercury are the only two liquids. Elements are everywhere: some you can see, like gold, others are almost invisible, like oxygen gas. An element is a substance that cannot be broken up into simpler ingredients. Each one is made up of tiny building blocks called atoms, which are unique for every element. Most elements are joined with other elements to make compounds, which are made by combining two or more elements. This includes water, which is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen. The idea of elements is very old, dating back about 2,600 years to ancient Greece. However, Greek thinkers believed that the world was made of just four elements: earth, water, fire, and air. Empedocles, an influential scholar, was the first to propose that these elements made up all structures.

Only much later did scientists learn that none of these are actually elements. For thousands of years, everybody from ancient Egyptian priests to medieval European alchemists, speculated about the definiton and classification of an element About 99 per cent of the human body is made from just six elements, though they are combined together to form thousands of different compounds. On the other hand, Earth’s atmosphere is a mixture of gases, most of which are pure elements. About 99 per cent of the air is made from nitrogen and oxygen. Chemists are scientists who study elements and compounds. However, before they existed, the alchemists were medieval researchers. Believing in a mixture of science and magic, alchemists tried to change ordinary metals (such as lead) into gold. They failed because elements cannot be changed from one type to another. But, in the process, they discovered many new elements and developed several processes that chemists still use today. The ancient concept of four elements – earth, water, fire, and air expanded to a belief that every substance on Earth was made from a mixture of these elements. However, many substances including mercury, sulfur, and gold did not fit this idea. Over the last 300 years, chemists have followed a long series of clues to reveal the true nature of elements, their atoms, and what happens to them during chemical reactions. Many of the first breakthroughs in chemistry came in the 1700s, from investigations into the composition of air. Chemists such as Joseph Black, Henry Cavendish, and Joseph Priestly discovered several different “airs”, which we now call gases. They also found that the gases could react with solid substances, which they called “earths”. These discoveries began a journey that revealed that there were dozens of elements, not just four. Today, scientists have identified 118 elements, but more may be discovered in time.

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