The Periodic Table of Elements

How to understand the layout of the P.Table and to know whatelements are in the first place…

#1 What are “elements” anyway?You probably recognize the name of many elements on the PeriodicTable. Oxygen, Calcium, Iron, Gold…they’re all on there.

But why isn’t water on the Periodic Table? Or brass? Or cookiedough? Because…

The 100+ elements on the periodic table are all pure substances madeof just one kind of atom.

Let’s see what that really means.

#2 Joe and Janet

Joe’s got some water Janet’s got some gold

They agree to give each other an ITSY little bit of what they’ve got

#3 Joe and Janet Share!Janet takes her gold and, using the smallest knife you can everimagine, she cuts her gold bar in half. And then in half again. Andagain. Over and over and over until she’s left with a tiny little bitthat she can’t cut in half any more.

So she gives to Joe one single gold atom. It does exactly the same thingsas the huge gold bar she started with, but it’s just a whole lot smaller.

Gold is an element. It’s made of one kind of atom, different from calcium or silver or helium.

#4 Joe’s turn!Joe’s happy with his gold atom. He wants to give Janet a water atom.So he uses the tiniest little spoon you can imagine, and scoops awayhalf his water. Again and again and again. But he finally gets to apoint where…

He’s left with 3 atoms…one oxygenatom and two hydrogen atoms stuck toeach other. (Now H2O makes sense)!

Joe borrows Janet’s knife and chopsinto this itsy bitsy water drop. As hemakes his final cut, the water drop fallsapart and the 3 atoms drift away into theair. Joe is sad that he has nothing togive to Janet.

#5 So that means that Water……isn’t an element. Sure, it’s a pure substance, but it’s made FROMelements, specifically hydrogen and oxygen. That’s why you can’tfind “water” on the Periodic Table. It’s the same reason why you won’tfind “yogurt” or “dirt” or “puppy” on there, either.

So…gold is made up of just ONE kindof atom…gold atoms! ELEMENT!

And water is made up of different kindsof atoms stuck together. NOT an element!

So everything in the universe made of matter is either a chunk of element, or is made FROM several elements! Yeah!

#6 So what makes a Gold atom different from, say, a Platinum

atom?

This is a big deal in 8th grade science…learning how the elementsare made from different kinds of atoms. Here’s the quick & easy6th grade answer:

You’ve seen pictures of atoms like this for yearsin science books and videos.

The 100+ elements of the Periodic Table eachhave a different number of Protons (the yellowspheres in this model), which are just parts insidean atom. Next year, you’ll learn more about this.

#7 Elements…Aluminum foil is made entirely from element #13, Aluminum!

But “steel” is made from a combination of iron and carbon. Steelisn’t an element.

#8 Let’s get this thing sorted…Back in the 1800s, scientists knew of about 50 or 60 elements. It wasconfusing trying to keep track of all of them, and how they were alikeand different, so several scientists set about trying to organize the elements in a useful manner.

This guy, a Russian named Dmitri Mendeleev, succeeded. He wrotedown information about the known elements, then put them togetherin alike groups.

He figured if he could arrange alike elements incolumns, with the “lightest” ones at top and “heaviest”ones at bottom, he’d make a nice, nifty chart.

#9 Mendeleev’s P. TableHis chart had a ton of holesin it where he predicted newelements would bediscovered. He couldpredict a lot of things aboutthe missing elements, because they would be alikethe elements around them.

Mendeleev arranged his periodic table by atomic mass, or how “heavy”the atoms of that element are. His P.T. has trends and patterns for boththe columns up and down and rows left and right.

#10 Review•Elements are pure substances made of just one kind of atom.•Everything else is made FROM elements combining together.•Dmitri Mendeleev arranged the elements into the Periodic Table.•In the P. Table, elements in the same column are very similar (alike).•Elements in the same rows also share certain properties.

#11 “Groups” of ElementsWe’re going to break down the Periodic Table into 3 big groups andcolor code it.

That’s good news, because wecould get a lot more technicaland have 9 or 10 groups instead.

Be sure to color LIGHTLY so that you can still read the informationon your paper. LIGHTLY.

Your name!

Nonmetals Metalloids Metals

#13 What makes those 3 groups different?

Metals, nonmetals and metalloids differ in their physical & chemicalproperties (observable characteristics). We’ll learn much more aboutthat stuff a little later.

#14 One More Thing…

“What’s up with those two rowsat the bottom?” is an often-askedquestion.

It’s just a way to get the Periodic Table to fit on a normal-sized pieceof paper. The way it should REALLY look is like this:

#15 And that is…

…until we see in a few days how metals, nonmetals, andmetalloids are different.