Awesome Vocabulary
This is a one- or two-letter abbreviation used to represent an element on the periodic table.
What is a chemical symbol?
In 1869, this Russian chemist first organized the elements into a chart based on repeating patterns of properties.
Who is Dmitri Mendeleev?
Elements in Group 1 are so reactive they are never found uncombined in nature, and some are so soft they can be cut with a plastic knife.
What are alkali metals?
Sitting alone in the upper left corner, this simplest element has 1 proton, 0 neutrons, and 1 electron, and makes up much of the sun.
What is hydrogen?
All elements that follow uranium on the periodic table are unstable, decay radioactively, and are known by this collective name.
What are transuranium elements?
This value represents the average mass of all the isotopes of an element.
What is atomic mass?
Mendeleev originally arranged his periodic table in order of increasing atomic mass, whereas the modern table is arranged by this property.
What is atomic number (or the number of protons)?
Found in Groups 3–12, these elements are mostly hard, shiny solids with high melting points that serve as good conductors of heat and electricity.
What are transition metals?
This nonmetal is the only nonmetal in Group 14 and is essential to the chemistry of life, appearing in proteins, DNA, and fats.
What is carbon?
Scientists synthesize new transuranium elements in labs by crashing atomic nuclei together at high speeds inside this machine.
What is a particle accelerator?
These horizontal rows on the periodic table contain a series of different elements that all share the same number of electron shells.
What are periods?
Mendeleev famously left blank spaces in his chart because he accurately predicted the existence and properties of these.
What are undiscovered elements?
Compared to Group 1 elements, these Group 2 metals are harder, denser, and have higher melting points, though they are still very reactive.
What are alkaline earth metals?
Making up about 78% of Earth's atmosphere, this nonmetal shares Group 15 with phosphorus, arsenic, and antimony.
What is nitrogen?
When an atomic mass number is shown in parentheses on the periodic table, it indicates the mass number of this specific isotope.
What is the longest-lived isotope?
Also known as a family, this vertical column of elements shares similar chemical and physical characteristics.
What is a group?
As you move from left to right across a period, each element has one more of these subatomic particles in its nucleus than the element before it.
What is a proton?
Located in the top row below Period 7, these naturally occurring elements are sometimes referred to as "rare earth metals".
What are lanthanides?
Meaning "salt-forming," this Group 17 family contains fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine and represents the most reactive nonmetals.
What are the halogens (or the Halogen Family)?
All temporary names for newly discovered elements end with this three-letter suffix.
What is -ium?
Arsenic and antimony belong to this class of elements that have some properties of metals and some of solid nonmetals.
What are metalloids?
On the periodic table, metals are located on the left, nonmetals are on the right, and these elements sit along the border between the two.
What are metalloids?
All elements in this bottom row below Period 7 are radioactive, and only two of them—uranium and thorium—are found in nature.
What are actinides?
Helium belongs to this Group 18 family of elements, which are the least reactive nonmetals and do not ordinarily form compounds.
What are the noble gases?
Using the temporary naming root system (1 = un, 2 = bi, 9 = en), this is the temporary chemical symbol for element 119.
What is Uue (Ununennium)?