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Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas . [ 10 ] Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere , at 0.934% (9340 ppmv ).
Argon (symbol Ar) is the third element in group 18, the noble gases. Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide. Nearly all of this argon is radiogenic argon-40 derived from the decay of potassium-40 in the Earth's crust.
Argon (18 Ar) has 26 known isotopes, from 29 Ar to 54 Ar, of which three are stable (36 Ar, 38 Ar, and 40 Ar). On the Earth, 40 Ar makes up 99.6% of natural argon. The longest-lived radioactive isotopes are 39 Ar with a half-life of 268 years, 42 Ar with a half-life of 32.9 years, and 37 Ar with a half-life of 35.04 days.
The inertness of noble gases makes them useful whenever chemical reactions are unwanted. For example, argon is used as a shielding gas in welding and as a filler gas in incandescent light bulbs. Helium is used to provide buoyancy in blimps and balloons. Helium and neon are also used as refrigerants due to their low boiling points.
Bracketed noble gas symbols on the left represent inner configurations that are the same in each period. Written out, these are: He, 2, helium : 1s 2 Ne, 10, neon : 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 Ar, 18, argon : 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 Kr, 36, krypton : 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 4s 2 3d 10 4p 6 Xe, 54, xenon : 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 4s 2 3d 10 4p 6 5s 2 4d ...
The chemical elements are what the periodic table classifies and organizes. Hydrogen is the element with atomic number 1; helium, atomic number 2; lithium, atomic number 3; and so on. Each of these names can be further abbreviated by a one- or two-letter chemical symbol; those for hydrogen, helium, and lithium are respectively H, He, and Li. [6]
A chemical element, often simply called an element, is a type of atom which has a specific number of protons in its atomic nucleus (i.e., a specific atomic number, or Z). [ 1 ] The definitive visualisation of all 118 elements is the periodic table of the elements , whose history along the principles of the periodic law was one of the founding ...
Neutral atoms of the chemical elements have the same term symbol for each column in the s-block and p-block elements, but differ in d-block and f-block elements where the ground-state electron configuration changes within a column, where exceptions to Hund's rules occur. Ground state term symbols for the chemical elements are given below.