Alkali Metals and Alkaline Earth Metals
A silvery-white, soft metal that tarnishes rapidly in the air and reacts with water, and has Ca as its symbol
What is Calcium?
The most abundant transition metal in Earth's solid crust, which is fourth among all elements and second (to aluminum) among metals in crustal abundance. It uses the letters Fe as its symbol.
What is Iron?
A non-metallic element that is electron-deficient, possessing a vacant p-orbital. It has several forms, the most common of which is amorphous or a dark powder. It is unreactive to oxygen, water, acids, and alkalis. It uses the letter B as its symbol.
What is Boron?
A colorless, odorless gas. The greatest commercial use of this gas is in the steel industry. Large quantities are also used in the manufacture of a wide range of chemicals including nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide. It uses O as its symbol.
What is Oxygen?
A colorless, odorless gas that is totally unreactive. It is used as a cooling medium for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and the superconducting magnets in MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers. It uses He as its symbol.
What is Helium?
A very soft silvery-white metal that is the sixth most abundant element on Earth. It uses the letters Na as its symbol.
What is Sodium?
A soft metal with a characteristic yellow color. It is chemically unreactive, although it will dissolve in aqua regia (a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids). It uses the letters Au as its symbol.
What is Gold?
An element, when ultrapure, is solid with a blue-grey metallic sheen. It makes up 27.7% of the Earth's crust by mass and is the second most abundant element (oxygen is the first). It does not occur uncombined in nature but occurs chiefly as the oxide. It uses Si as its symbol.
What is Silicon?
A colorless, odorless gas. This element is important to the chemical industry. It is used to make fertilizers, nitric acid, nylon, dyes, and explosives. It uses N as its symbol.
What is Nitrogen?
A colorless, odorless gas. It will not react with any other substance. It has no known biological role. It is non-toxic. It uses Ne as its symbol.
What is Neon?
A shiny gray solid which bears a close physical resemblance to the other five elements in the second column of the periodic table. It uses the letters Mg as its symbol.
What is Magnesium?
A hard, shiny, and strong metal. It has no known biological role and is the ninth most abundant element on Earth. It uses the letters Ti as its symbol.
What is Titanium?
A silvery-white semi-metal that is brittle and is a semiconductor. The pure element was commonly doped with arsenic, gallium, or other elements and used as a transistor in thousands of electronic applications. It uses Ge as its symbol.
What is Germanium?
There are several allotropes of this element. The most common appears as yellow crystals or powder. This element is used in the vulcanization of black rubber, as a fungicide, and in black gunpowder. It uses the letter S as its symbol.
A colorless, odorless gas that is totally inert to other substances. It is often used when an inert atmosphere is needed. It is used in this way for the production of titanium and other reactive elements. It uses Ar as its symbol.
What is Argon?
A chemical element that is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. It uses the letters Li as its symbol.
What is Lithium?
A silvery-white metal with a blue tinge. It tarnishes in the air and is used to galvanize other metals, such as iron, to prevent rusting. It uses Zn as its symbol.
What is Zinc?
A semi-metal that in its metallic form is bright, silver-grey, and brittle. It is a well-known poison and its compounds are sometimes used as rat poisons and insecticides but their use is strictly controlled. It uses As as its symbol.
What is Arsenic?
A yellowy-green dense gas with a choking smell. It kills bacteria and is a disinfectant. It is used to treat drinking water and swimming pool water. It is also used to make hundreds of consumer products from paper to paints, and from textiles to insecticides. It uses Cl as its symbol.
What is Chlorine?
A gas with no color or smell. It does not react with anything except fluorine gas. It is used commercially as a filling gas for energy-saving fluorescent lights. It is also used in some flash lamps used for high-speed photography. It uses Kr as its symbol.
What is Krypton?
A steel-gray, strong, lightweight, and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to form minerals. It uses the letters Be as its symbol.
What is Beryllium?
A hard, brittle, silvery metal and is too brittle to be of much use as a pure metal. It is mainly used in alloys, such as steel, and is the fifth most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust. It uses Mg as its symbol.
What is Manganese?
A semi-metal that is usually obtained as a grey powder. It is used in alloys, mostly with copper and stainless steel, to improve their machinability. When added to lead it makes it more resistant to acids and improves its strength and hardness. It uses Te as its symbol.
What is Tellurium?
A deep-red, oily liquid with a sharp smell and is toxic. It is used in many areas such as agricultural chemicals, dyestuffs, insecticides, pharmaceuticals, and chemical intermediates. Some uses are being phased out for environmental reasons, but new uses continue to be found. It uses Br as its symbol.
A colorless, odorless gas that is very unreactive. It is used in certain specialized light sources. It produces a beautiful blue glow when excited by an electrical discharge. It uses Xe as its symbol.
What is Xenon?