EleMental! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Protium, deuterium and tritium

Protium is the most abundant hydrogen isotope and consists of one proton, orbited by a single electron. It is a stable isotope of hydrogen and is the most abundant element in the Universe, composing approximately 89% of the Universe, a completely accurate measurement would be impossible, however, given the frankly ridiculous size of the Universe.

Deuterium is also stable, but composes a mere 0.015% of all hydrogen found on Earth. This isotope of hydrogen consists of one proton and one neutron, again orbited by a single electron. If two deuterium atoms bond with one oxygen atom then heavy water is formed. This is very similar to standard, boring water, but has slightly different properties, as it forms stronger bonds. The melting and boiling points are different; it is slightly more viscous and is a slightly worse solvent than ordinary water. It has been estimated one in every six thousand drops of water is none other than heavy water. However, what is slightly more worrying is that there is a reasonably large amount of fluoride, which is toxic in large amounts, in drinking water as well.

Finally, we reach tritium, an unstable isotope of hydrogen which decays via beta-minus decay. This means that a neutron is converted into a proton, an electron and for anybody who knows a lot about particle physics, an antineutrino, which is a very unreactive, boring particle. Surprisingly, it is used in exit signs as an alternative means of lighting them, in the case of a lack of power. These signs operate by using the free electron to carry an electrical charge. The fact that tritium is a low-energy beta-emitter, which means that the electron, and antineutrino, which are discharged from the nucleus does not have a great deal of energy, it is considered safe, but PLEASE do not damage any exit signs!

Unium, duium and trium are Latin numbers with the suffix '-ium' added in an incorrect fashion, einsium, zweium and dreium are German numbers with the suffix '-ium' added and unium, deuxium and troisuim are French numbers with the suffix '-ium' added, unfortunately none of these are correct.

Answer: Neon (Ne)

Neon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay and Morris M. Travers in 1898. It is mainly used in signs, as passing an electrical current through neon results in that brilliant, bright glow. Xenon has the atomic number 54, fluorine has the atomic number 9 and krypton has the atomic number 36, so, I am afraid that these are incorrect.

Answer: 1s2, 2s2, 2p6, 3s1

The correct form of notation is to have the number referring to the electron shell. Electrons orbit in shells, which are areas of energy, capable of holding various numbers of electrons. The letter refers to the subshell. A subshell is an area of energy within the original shell. The number refers to the number of electrons. Sodium has a full '1s' subshell of two electrons, which is written as '1s2', a full '2s' subshell of two electrons ('2s2'), a full '2p' subshell of six electrons ('2p6') and one electron in the '3s' subshell (3s1). I have also included the following list, which is a list of the number of electrons which can be held in all subshells.

's': 2
'p': 6
'd': 10
'f': 14

'd' and 'f' are simply further subshells, which can hold more electrons.

Answer: Wolfram

The 'W' is from the German word 'Wolfram', which is derived from the name of one of tungsten's ores, Wolframite. Wolframite has the delightfully cute meaning of "the devourer of tin". Wolframite was given this name as it can hinder the process of tin smelting. Wyoming is, of course, a state in the U.S.A, Warsaw is the capital city of Poland and Edward Waring was an eighteenth century mathematician who conducted a great deal of work relating to disintegrating numbers and calculating how these numbers were composed of the sum of prime numbers or their powers.

Unfortunately, these are incorrect.

Answer: Hydrargyrum

Mercury's symbol is derived from the Greek word Hydrargyrum, which means "liquid silver" and of course, mercury is a very shiny, silvery liquid.

Herzegovina is a European region which is part of the nation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which is located in Southern Europe, in an area known as the Balkans and its capital is Sarajevo, the city where Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot. It was this event that led Austria-Hungary to issue an ultimatum, which was refused and culminated in the First World War. However, rivalries and tensions had made war almost inevitable and it would be wrong to say that this was the sole cause of World War I.

The Hague is a city in the Netherlands and is the location of two international courts, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICJ is a court of the United Nations which deals with vast numbers of legal matters, the ICC deals with the prosecution of individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Finally, the Hydrangea is an Asian plant, which famously has the curious property of a variation in the colour of petals as a result of the varying pH of soil.

Answer: Plumbum

Lead's symbol is derived from the Latin word for it, 'Plumbum'.

Presbyterian refers to a Christian religion, which teaches that a worshipper must agree completely with the doctrine of the church.

Probe is a verb meaning to investigate something, or to examine something with a probe. It is also a noun referring to a surgical instrument used for examinations and a machine used for exploring outer space and its many aspects in the case of a space probe.

Finally, a pub, short for public house, is the place where a person can purchase food and/or alcohol.

Answer: Glenn T. Seaborg

Glenn T. Seaborg, along with Stanley G. Thompson, Kenneth Street Jr. and Albert Ghiorso synthesised berkelium by bombarding the element americium with alpha particles. An alpha particle is a nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons. This was done with a Cyclotron, which is a device that accelerates particles using radio waves to switch the charges between positive and negative of two cavities, this causes the particles to move rapidly, accelerating them.

J.J. Thompson most notably discovered the electron. This was done by observing that negative rays in a cathode ray tube, which is a device that generates rays when a voltage is applied, could not be separated from the rays themselves with a magnet, but that an electrical field could deflect the rays. This led him to believe that the rays were actually negatively charged particles, which were soon to become the subject of a great deal of study. However, he did not discover any new elements, but did discover isotopes by channelling neon through a magnetic field and an electric field and observing how light patches were formed on different places of photographic paper. Therefore, he theorised, there must be two types, or isotopes of neon, although many more were later discovered.

Galileo Galilei discovered four moons of Jupiter, Io, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa; he also presented the theory of uniformly accelerated motion, which states that gravity has the same effect on all objects and that in a vacuum they would fall at the same speed, however, air-resistance causes some objects to fall faster than others.

Finally, Einstein is famous for his theory of general relativity, which states that gravity is a result of the curvature of time and space and for his formula E=MC2, which shows the relationship between energy and matter, his formula shows us the amount of energy one would have if a certain amount of matter was converted into energy.

Answer: Marie Curie

Marie Curie discovered polonium in 1898 by analysing Pitchblende, which is an ore of uranium. She observed that Pitchblende is more radioactive than uranium and must, therefore, contain more than one radioactive substance. By refining the Pitchblende, Curie discovered polonium.

Henri Becquerel was French scientist who observed the image of a key on a photograph which had had a key placed upon it, along with some uranium salts. He reasoned that the uranium salts must have emitted something which had not passed through the key, leaving its imprint. Becquerel then began to theorise about radiation and assigned a young Marie Curie to research further.

Ernst Rutherford, conducted experiments with various different radioactive sources and along with his team of researchers conducted an experiment to determine which materials were capable of stopping the two types of radiation which were known to scientists at the time, alpha and beta. It was whilst conducting this experiment that it was observed that particles were deflected by gold leaf, which was one of the materials used in the experiment. Rutherford theorised that the nucleus must have a small positive charge which repels the particles and is orbited by negatively charged electrons. Otherwise, there would be no charge, if the electrons formed part of the nucleus, as the charges would be balanced, with the electrons countering the protons and vice versa. He also theorised that the force exerted on the electrons must have been stronger, closer to the atom, otherwise, more particles would have been deflected.

This was expanded upon by Niels Bohr, who theorised that the electrons must orbit in shells, in circular orbits, to form the Bohr model of the atom, which is the commonly accepted model.

Answer: Peter Armbruster

Peter Armbruster and his team bombarded lead with nickel in a linear accelerator to form darmstadtium. A linear accelerator is a device which uses high frequency AC voltage, or voltage where the current's size switches in a cycle, to accelerate particles.

Alfred Nobel invented dynamite, which is an explosive where the highly explosive nitro-glycerine is protected by a substance which is capable of absorbing heat, allowing for a time delay, so that when one presses a detonator, one has time to move.

Ohm was responsible for Ohm's Law, which states the relationship between voltage, current and resistance is V=IR, or voltage = current x resistance. However, this is only true at a certain, constant temperature and for metals and metalloids.

Finally, Fahrenheit derived the temperature scale, fahrenheit, where water melts at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees.

Answer: A substance which cannot be chemically decomposed into a smaller substance

Of course, an element is a substance which consists of only one type of atom and therefore cannot be decomposed into anything smaller, chemically. Of course an atom is composed of protons and neutrons, which are composed of quarks, and electrons, but we cannot decompose a substance into these sub-atomic particles chemically.

A substance consisting of more than one type of atom is a compound, something which is very easy is elementARY and you would definitely not call somebody who is insane an element.