Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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 ...
These elements originally referred to earth, water, air and fire rather than the chemical elements of modern science. The term 'elements' (stoicheia) was first used by Greek philosopher Plato around 360 BCE in his dialogue Timaeus, which includes a discussion of the composition of inorganic and organic bodies and is a speculative treatise on ...
All elements have multiple isotopes, variants with the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. For example, carbon has three naturally occurring isotopes: all of its atoms have six protons and most have six neutrons as well, but about one per cent have seven neutrons, and a very small fraction have eight neutrons. Isotopes are ...
This list of chemical elements named after places includes elements named both directly and indirectly for places. 41 of the 118 chemical elements have names associated with, or specifically named for, places around the world or among astronomical objects.
The synthetic elements are those with atomic numbers 95–118, as shown in purple on the accompanying periodic table: [1] these 24 elements were first created between 1944 and 2010. The mechanism for the creation of a synthetic element is to force additional protons into the nucleus of an element with an atomic number lower than 95.
There are currently seven complete periods in the periodic table, comprising the 118 known elements. Any new elements will be placed into an eighth period; see extended periodic table. The elements are colour-coded below by their block: red for the s-block, yellow for the p-block, blue for the d-block, and green for the f-block.
A few elements have been found to have a pharmacologic function in humans (and possibly in other living things as well; the phenomenon has not been widely studied). In these, a normally nonessential element can treat a disease (often a micronutrient deficiency). An example is fluorine, which reduces the effects of iron deficiency in rats.
Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. [1] It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, properties, behavior and the changes they undergo during reactions with other substances.