The Importance Of Chemical Elements

The periodic table is a useful arrangement of the chemical elements. These elements are usually listed in rows. These elements are listed in order based on the increasing atomic number; also known as the number of protons there are in each element. They are also listed with the atomic number, and a symbol which can be referred to as the shorter title. Along with the other information on the table, the atomic weight for each element is given. The elements listed in the periodic table are separated into five different groups which are known as the element families. An element family is a set of elements sharing common properties. Elements are classified into families because of the three main categories of elements (metals, nonmetals, and semimetals).

On the right side of the periodic table, there is a dividing line that kind of looks like a staircase. Besides hydrogen, all of the elements that lie to the left of the staircase are metals. Metals have many properties that sets it far apart from nonmetals and metalloids. The metal elements all have a metallic shine. They are also great for conducting thermal and electrical energy. This can be very useful when plugging in all sorts of electrical devices. When it comes to the melting points for these elements, they’re pretty high. This causes the metals to take a lot longer to melt into a liquid state. Next, is the nonmetals. They are located to the right of the staircase. They are nothing like metals. They are pretty much polar opposites. They have very poor conductors, they have no metallic shine, and they also lack high melting points. These elements would definitely not be useful when trying to prevent something like an electrical

They were once referred to as inert gases because chemists believe that they just wouldn’t react at all. Families three through twelve are the transition metals. These serve as a bridge, or transition, from one side of the periodic table to the other. These elements can actually fit into many different families, so really they don’t belong to just one. Transition metals can be used in all sorts of things. These things include : construction, medicine, jewelry, and other expensive items. Located towards the bottom of the table is the inner transition metals. Elements fifty eight to seventy one are called the lanthanides. Elements eighty nine to one hundred three are the actinides. Elements located here are not in columns, however, they are horizontal. The particular rare earth metals known as lanthanides are used in the lighting industry. Actinides are very unstable and they are all are radioactive. Actinides do not occur in nature. Our present table of elements can be confusing and is very complex, however the first table was not. Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, a russian chemist and most importantly is the inventor responsible for the very first periodic table of elements. Mendeleev worked with all the elements possible at the time, and his firm knowledge on the subject gave him insights into their properties. In 1869, he published the first ever table. The elements were arranged by atomic weight rather than atomic number. At that particular time, there were only