Let's Get Down To Bismuth - Elementary Puns Quiz

Answer: Iron

Iron (Fe, and atomic number 26) can be found in many areas of nature, including in humans, as it is a vital ingredient in haemoglobin. That's why if you happen to taste blood, it has a metallic tang to it. That's the iron right there. Most often, iron is combined with other metals to form an alloy, as pure iron is not particularly used widely.

Answer: Barium

Of course, if you have a dead chemist, you'll want to bury him, or as the pun suggests, barium. Ha ha. Oh dear. Barium is a silvery-white alkaline earth metal, and is one of several metals used to give fireworks their colour, in this case, green. Barium has the symbol Ba, and an atomic number of 56.

Answer: Argon

Argon, which makes up a small amount of the atmosphere, can be found in the group of noble (or inert) gases, with an atomic number of 18. Up until 1957, the symbol for argon was simply A, until it was changed to Ar, for reasons that are not clear, although it may have been to avoid confusion with the symbol A for ångström, which is used to measure the lengths of chemical bonds and sizes of atoms. For the record, 1 ångström is equal to 1×10^−10 metres (or 0.1 nanometres). That's, well, quite small.

Answer: Boron

Boron, symbol B and atomic number 5, is one of those elements that is in between a metal and a non-metal. It is used primarily as a semiconductor. In terms of chemical make-up, boron is closer to silicon than it is to aluminium, despite them being in the same group.

Answer: Silicon

Silicon is a fantastic element, in my opinion. It is the eighth most abundant element in the universe, and the second most abundant in the Earth's crust, beaten only by oxygen. It is found mainly in silicon oxide form, like sand, quartz, flint, and opal. With the symbol Si and atomic number 14, silicon is vital to plant and animal life, in much the same way that carbon is.

Answer: Copper

Copper...policeman...yes? Classic punning right there. Moving right along... Copper is highly malleable, ductile, a great conductor, and therefore, a very important element. Likewise, its alloys, bronze (copper + tin) and brass (copper + zinc) are of importance to us humans. Naturally occurring copper is red in colour, and is used in copper (I) chloride form to give flames and fireworks a blue colour.

It has a symbol of Cu, and atomic number 29.

Answer: Zinc

Zinc (Zn, atomic number 30) is essential for the growth of plants and animals. Think about this: an animal which is zinc-deficient requires 50% MORE food to gain the same weight as an animal which has sufficient levels of zinc. That's how important zinc is to animals in terms of growth.

The element itself is bluish-white in colour, with a certain lustre to it. It is moderately good at conducting electricity, but not as good as its periodic neighbour, copper.

Answer: Radon

Another noble gas in this mix is radon, with symbol Rn and atomic number 86. At room temperature, radon is colourless. No colour. Devoid of pigment. But, bring the temperature right down, below its freezing point, and BAM!, it turns into a lovely yellow colour.

Although it might be pretty at sub-freezing temperatures, it is dangerous, and inhalation is not a good thing to do, due to the effects the decay has. It is also the heaviest of all the gases, and occurs naturally as a decay product of uranium.

Answer: Arsenic

Despite the name being a little bit cheeky and naughty, arsenic is poisonous. Don't go smelling it, particularly in arsenous oxide form, even though it gives off a garlicky smell. I'm not joking, arsenous oxide smells like garlic. Stop giggling! The symbol is As (not Ar, that's taken by argon), and it has an atomic number of 33.

Answer: Lead

Ahh, lead. Its symbol, Pb, comes from the Latin for lead, which is plumbum (don't laugh, this is serious chemistry). Before it was discovered that lead was, well, deadly, it was used widely in years past, such as during Ancient Roman times, when pipes made of lead were used as drains from the baths that were around in that period.

It is a rubbish conductor of electricity, which is why it is used as an insulator. It was also used in petrols, but its impact on the environment led (no pun intended) to it being removed from fuels.