'C' the Elements Trivia Quiz

Answer: Carbon

Carbon is one of the key building-blocks of life on Earth (or probably across the wider universe presuming such life actually exists) and can be found in all types of organic compound. As such, the whole field of organic chemistry is dedicated to the study of chemical structures that include carbon.

It is estimated that carbon is the fourth-most abundant chemical element in the universe - only hydrogen, helium and oxygen being more prolific. It is also the chemical element that forms the most different compounds so it shouldn't be surprising that, in addition to well-known forms of carbon such as coal and carbon dioxide, tests also show that it makes up just under 20% of the human body (its second-largest component at the elemental level). The many millions of forms of carbon are as diverse as they are numerous - graphite (the substance found in pencil leads) is one of the softest minerals, while diamond is the hardest naturally-occurring substance on Earth.

Answer: Chromium

The name 'chromium' comes from the Greek word 'chroma' meaning 'colour'. This might seem an odd choice for an element that forms a bright and shiny silvery metal, but actually comes from the fact that many chromium compounds - including those ores from which chromium was first isolated and discovered in the late 18th century - are usually brightly coloured, and particularly known for producing vibrant shades of yellow, orange, pink and red. Chromium, which has the atomic number 24, has been used as a pigment for centuries and is the trace element that gives rubies their red colour.

Stainless steel is predominantly an alloy of iron, carbon and chromium and is defined as being steel that contains a minimum of 10.5% chromium. The production of stainless steel forms one of the three main practical uses for chromium along with pigments or dyes and chrome plating using electroplating techniques. Other applications include its use in catalysts, wood preservatives and the leather tanning process.

Answer: Copper

Copper has the chemical symbol Cu, which is derived from the older alternative name for this element of cuprum, a simplified version of 'cyprium'. Copper was first discovered in prehistory and was known as 'aes cyprium' by the Romans because the majority of the copper used in the Roman Empire was mined in Cyprus. Archaeologists have discovered copper jewellery in the Middle East that is believed to date back to almost 9000 BC, while copper weapons were found alongside the body of Otzi the Iceman who died in the Alps around 3300 BC.

While copper is usually, well, copper-coloured, when left exposed to the elements it reacts with oxygen and water and develops a greenish substance on its surface known as verdigris. The substance is often a form of copper carbonate, but is usually copper chloride in seaside locations where the copper has had contact with salty seawater. Verdigris can also be manufactured by keeping copper in a closed environment with vinegar.

Answer: Curium

Curium was first discovered in 1944 by a group of scientists led by Glenn T. Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley. Curium is a highly radioactive element and the work that led to it initially being synthesised was related to the top secret work to develop the atomic bomb, therefore its discovery was not made public until after the end of the Second World War. The element was officially named after Pierre and Marie Curie, the famous husband-and-wife scientific team who were instrumental to the early study of radioactivity and discovered radium. Seaborg's contribution to the discovery of radioactive elements was also later recognised when element 106 was officially named seaborgium in 1997.

Actinides are the elements with atomic numbers between 89 and 103 - curium has the atomic number 96.

Answer: Calcium

The benefits of calcium have been at least partially understood for centuries, but the element itself was first isolated by Sir Humphrey Davy in 1808. Calcium is an important part of the human diet as it is not only required for the formation of bones and teeth, but is also necessary to maintain the strength of these structures and avoid conditions such as osteoporosis. It is also required for the process of muscle contraction (including the operation of the heart), is important for healthy digestion and regulates blood clotting.

Since limestone (which contains calcium carbonate) and other calcium ores like gypsum (calcium sulfate dihydrate) don't generally make a tasty snack, it is probably just as well that there are various food stuffs, including dairy products, grains, fruits and vegetables, that are rich in calcium.

Answer: Chlorine

Chlorine is an excellent natural disinfectant so it makes sense that one of its most common uses is in the process of keeping water safe and clean - whether for drinking or for swimming around in. However, it is also a key ingredient of household bleach (which is usually made from a chlorine compound called sodium hypochlorite), which you should most definitely never drink or immerse any part of yourself in. Pure chlorine, which exists as a gas at room temperature, is highly toxic and first turned into a chemical weapon during the First World War when chlorine gas, called bertholite, was released by German forces at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.

The halogens are the elements located in group 17 on the right-hand side of a periodic table and are characterised by the fact that they produce salts when they react with various metals. Sodium chloride is probably the best known of these as it is the chemical term for the standard table salt that can be found in (or sprinkled on) much of the food we eat.

Answer: Cobalt

Cobalt is a common pigment that usually produces a shade of deep blue and very little of the pigment is required to produce highly-coloured products such as cobalt blue glass or the blue glazes sometimes used on pottery and china. (Cobalt green can also be created by mixing the cobalt compounds with zinc ones.)

While most rechargeable batteries are based on nickel-cadmium or lithium designs, they also incorporate some cobalt in order to improve efficiency. Another practical applications of cobalt is its use in the metal parts of replacement joints and turbine blades, because of the tendency of cobalt alloys to be strong and hardwearing. It is also an essential mineral to have in your body, albeit in microscopic amounts.

Answer: Cerium

The rare-earth elements are defined as the elements of the lanthanide series (with atomic numbers 57 to 71) plus scandium (atomic number 21) and yttrium (atomic number 39). The apparent inaccuracy in their naming can be attributed to the fact that the first rare-earth elements to be discovered in the late 18th century were found in ores that, at the time, were unknown and presumed to be rare. It later transpired that they weren't as rare as they had initially been believed to be. Lanthanide elements also tend to occur together in the same ores and can be difficult to isolate chemically.

The element with the atomic number 58 was the first to be isolated in 1803 and was named cerium after the newly-discovered planet Ceres - which was downgraded to the status of a dwarf planet in the 1850s. The reason why it was the first lanthanide to be discovered probably relates to the fact that it is the most abundant of the group and that it is relatively easy to separate from its ores.

Answer: Caesium

Caesium (which is also known as cesium in the USA) has the second-lowest melting points out of all metals in the periodic table, behind mercury which melts at -38 degrees Celsius. It was discovered in 1860 as a bright blue line in the results from a (then new) technique called flame spectroscopy. It was therefore given a name derived from 'caesius', a Latin word for a shade of blue.

Caesium has a golden-silver appearance but is useless as a decorative metal thanks to its low melting point and the fact that is so reactive that any contact with water results in a violent explosion, even at extremely low temperatures. However, it is a handy thing to have around for accurate timekeeping as caesium clocks (using atoms of the radioactive isotope caesium-133) have been estimated to be accurate to up to around 1 second in 20 million years.

Answer: Copernicium

Copernicium (element 112) was first created in a laboratory at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research at Darmstadt, Germany in 1996. A single atom of the isotope copernicium-277 resulted from zinc-70 being fired at lead-208 in a heavy ion accelerator. However, the extremely small quantities produced and uncertainty around other similar atoms meant that the discovery was not officially recognised until 2009. While other isotopes of copernicium have since been discovered, all of them are highly radioactive with extremely short half-lives measured in seconds or milliseconds. As such this element has no practical applications outside of the laboratory.

The choice of permanent name for this element was, as is traditional, proposed by its discoverers. They decided to honour the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) who is remembered for providing mathematical evidence for the model of heliocentrism - the idea that the Earth revolved around the sun (rather than the other way round).