Geography is destiny
(Chapter 1 from The Disappearing Spoon and Other Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean)
Summary of Significance:
The periodic table is, according to Sam Kean, “an asymmetric expanse of columns and rows” (Kean, 11). It has eighteen columns, all different lengths, as well as seven horizontal rows. Below is a separate piece that consists of two rows and fourteen columns. Each square on this table is an element, and there are a total of 112. Every element has its own place, and if they were moved, the system would collapse. Not all of the elements are similar, and there are different types in different areas. 75% of the table is metals, the eastern side contains gases, and between the metals and gases are the harder to define substances. The far right hand side contains elements known as the noble gases. The west side holds more energetic and reactive gases known as the halogens. On the very western edge are the alkali metals, more violent elements. With reactive metals and halogens in the west, noble gases in the east, middle columns three through twelve contain elements called transition metals. The two rows below the periodic table that aren't connected are called lanthanides, and they are atomic numbers fifty-seven to seventy-one.
The sum of an element’s atomic number and it’s number of neutrons is the atomic weight. Once scientists figured out the relationship between the atomic number and weight, the periodic table made more sense. Some of the periodic table appears to be organized consistently. For example, “elements from columns with two extra electrons, such as calcium, and elements from columns that need two extra electrons, such as oxygen, frequently align themselves...Overall, you can usually tell at a glance how elements will combine by noting their column numbers and figuring out their charge.” (18) Moving horizontally, each element has one more electron than the element to it’s left. For example, sodium (element eleven) has eleven electrons and magnesium (element twelve) has twelve. Elements in different places on the table hold their electrons in different types of shells (s-shells, p-shells, d-shells, and f-shells), depending on where they lie on the table.
In conclusion, the periodic table is organized so that elements are linked in ways that make sense. Though most people read it left to right, many elements are organized by column and their relationships are clearer. They are far more related to each other vertically than horizontally. “Reading the periodic table across each row reveals a lot about the elements, but that’s only part of the story...the periodic table has its own grammar, and reading between the lines reveals whole new stories.” (31)
Summary of Evidence and Connection:
Back in Ancient Greece, Plato created the word “elements” as a name for small particles of matter. Being a philosopher in 400 BC, he didn't fully comprehend what elements were in the context of chemistry, but he he did believe that every being lives to find its compliment, which came into play when the periodic table was invented.
2,200 years after Plato invented the word “element”, scientists were finally beginning to discover what those elements really were. In 1911, a Dutch-German scientist discovered that when liquid helium reached -425℉, it became an ideal conductor. In 1937, a Russian-Canadian team found that helium, when cooled to -456℉, turned into a superfluid. In their times, these discoveries were beyond what anyone ever believed to be possible. Soon, scientists were finding more and more elements and began to organize them into a way that anyone could comprehend.
Another scientist, Gilbert Lewis, spent his life studying electrons and molecules. Lewis’s work was broad and not very deep, but he did have experiments that showed exchanging electrons on submicroscopic levels. Before the 1900s, scientists often tested acids by touching or drinking them, but over the years they discovered ways to organize them by their reactions and electron behavior.
Maria Goeppert was a German woman born in 1906. She earned a Ph.D, but no one would hire her because she was a woman. She could get small jobs here and there, but they were unimportant and stereotypical because no one believed she could do anything. However, she gained recognition and respect when she discovered that protons and neutrons sit in shells like electrons. She proved that nuclei have shells and form what is known as magic nuclei that reappear differently than chemical properties. Goeppert’s theory connects to Plato’s original idea that beautiful shapes are more perfect and her theory became the ideal form that all nuclei are judged by. Though she didn’t receive credit for her work due to male scientists taking the credit, her discovery changed chemistry forever.
The periodic table is, according to Sam Kean, “an asymmetric expanse of columns and rows” (Kean, 11). It has eighteen columns, all different lengths, as well as seven horizontal rows. Below is a separate piece that consists of two rows and fourteen columns. Each square on this table is an element, and there are a total of 112. Every element has its own place, and if they were moved, the system would collapse. Not all of the elements are similar, and there are different types in different areas. 75% of the table is metals, the eastern side contains gases, and between the metals and gases are the harder to define substances. The far right hand side contains elements known as the noble gases. The west side holds more energetic and reactive gases known as the halogens. On the very western edge are the alkali metals, more violent elements. With reactive metals and halogens in the west, noble gases in the east, middle columns three through twelve contain elements called transition metals. The two rows below the periodic table that aren't connected are called lanthanides, and they are atomic numbers fifty-seven to seventy-one.
The sum of an element’s atomic number and it’s number of neutrons is the atomic weight. Once scientists figured out the relationship between the atomic number and weight, the periodic table made more sense. Some of the periodic table appears to be organized consistently. For example, “elements from columns with two extra electrons, such as calcium, and elements from columns that need two extra electrons, such as oxygen, frequently align themselves...Overall, you can usually tell at a glance how elements will combine by noting their column numbers and figuring out their charge.” (18) Moving horizontally, each element has one more electron than the element to it’s left. For example, sodium (element eleven) has eleven electrons and magnesium (element twelve) has twelve. Elements in different places on the table hold their electrons in different types of shells (s-shells, p-shells, d-shells, and f-shells), depending on where they lie on the table.
In conclusion, the periodic table is organized so that elements are linked in ways that make sense. Though most people read it left to right, many elements are organized by column and their relationships are clearer. They are far more related to each other vertically than horizontally. “Reading the periodic table across each row reveals a lot about the elements, but that’s only part of the story...the periodic table has its own grammar, and reading between the lines reveals whole new stories.” (31)
Summary of Evidence and Connection:
Back in Ancient Greece, Plato created the word “elements” as a name for small particles of matter. Being a philosopher in 400 BC, he didn't fully comprehend what elements were in the context of chemistry, but he he did believe that every being lives to find its compliment, which came into play when the periodic table was invented.
2,200 years after Plato invented the word “element”, scientists were finally beginning to discover what those elements really were. In 1911, a Dutch-German scientist discovered that when liquid helium reached -425℉, it became an ideal conductor. In 1937, a Russian-Canadian team found that helium, when cooled to -456℉, turned into a superfluid. In their times, these discoveries were beyond what anyone ever believed to be possible. Soon, scientists were finding more and more elements and began to organize them into a way that anyone could comprehend.
Another scientist, Gilbert Lewis, spent his life studying electrons and molecules. Lewis’s work was broad and not very deep, but he did have experiments that showed exchanging electrons on submicroscopic levels. Before the 1900s, scientists often tested acids by touching or drinking them, but over the years they discovered ways to organize them by their reactions and electron behavior.
Maria Goeppert was a German woman born in 1906. She earned a Ph.D, but no one would hire her because she was a woman. She could get small jobs here and there, but they were unimportant and stereotypical because no one believed she could do anything. However, she gained recognition and respect when she discovered that protons and neutrons sit in shells like electrons. She proved that nuclei have shells and form what is known as magic nuclei that reappear differently than chemical properties. Goeppert’s theory connects to Plato’s original idea that beautiful shapes are more perfect and her theory became the ideal form that all nuclei are judged by. Though she didn’t receive credit for her work due to male scientists taking the credit, her discovery changed chemistry forever.