Elements

The Periodic Table

The rows in the periodic table are known as		Periods
The columns are known as		Groups

Number of naturally occurring elements (conventional wisdom; in truth it's not that simple)		92
Group I: lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, caesium, francium		Alkali metals
Group II: beryllium, magnesium, calcium, strontium, barium, radium		Alkaline earth metals
Group XVII: fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine (each needing one electron to fill their outer shells, making them highly reactive and forming acids in combination with hydrogen, salts with metals)		Halogens
Name is derived from the Greek words for 'salt' and 'to beget' – because they produce a wide range of salts
Group XVIII: elements with full electronic shells: helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon and radon are the six naturally occurring		Noble (Inert, Rare) Gases
Groups IB, IIB … VIIIB – atomic numbers 21–30, 39–48, 57–80		Transition elements
Elements with atomic numbers 57 to 71 (57 is lanthanum)		Lanthanides
Non–technical name for the lanthanoids (elements with atomic numbers 57 to 71 – previously known as lanthanides)		Rare earths
Elements with atomic numbers 89–103 (89 is Actinium; 93–103 do not occur naturally)		Actinides
Elements with atomic numbers greater than 92 (Uranium is 92)		Transuranic elements

Ores

Bauxite is the most common ore of		Aluminium
Stibnite is the main ore of		Antimony
Chalcopyrite is the most common ore of; malachite is another ore of		Copper
Siderite, haematite and magnetite are ores of		Iron
Galena is an ore of		Lead
Dolomite is an ore (source of the oxide) of		Magnesium
Cinnabar is the only important ore of		Mercury
Pentlandite is an ore of		Nickel
Sperrylite is the chief ore of		Platinum
Cassiterite is an ore of		Tin
Rutile and ilmenite are the chief ores of		Titanium
Pitchblende is an ore of		Uranium
Sphalerite and smithsonite (the latter known historically as calamine) are the principal ores of		Zinc

Names (meanings and origins)

This section gives the derivations of some of the more commonly–asked element names. For a full list, see Chemical Element Names.

Gets its name from the Greek word for orpiment – one of its ores, which was known to the ancient Romans and is used in painting as a yellow pigment		Arsenic
Name is derived from that of the mineral in which it was first discovered, which in turn is derived from the Greek word for 'heavy'		Barium (from baryta)
Name comes from the Greek for 'stink'		Bromine
Named after a US state		Californium
Named after the largest asteroid – which was itself named after the Roman goddess of agriculture		Cerium
From the Greek for 'pale green' or 'yellowish green'		Chlorine
From the Greek for 'colour'		Chromium
From the German word for a goblin		Cobalt
Named after Cyprus		Copper
Named after an Italian–born nuclear physicist and Nobel laureate		Fermium
Named by its discoverer from the Latin name for his native country (France)		Gallium
Named after the Greek god of the Sun		Helium
Named by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier, who identified it as an element in 1783, from the Greek for 'water producer'		Hydrogen
Named after a colour (not, as may appear at first sight, after an Asian country)		Indium
Named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow, because of the striking and diverse colors of its salts		Iridium
Name comes from the Greek word for 'hidden'		Krypton
Name is from the Greek for 'new'		Neon
Named by the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier (who identified it as an element in 1774) from the Greek for 'acid producer'		Oxygen
Name comes from the Spanish for 'little silver'		Platinum
Named after the country of her birth by Marie Curie, who discovered it along with her husband Pierre		Polonium
Named after the Titan in Greek mythology who stole fire from the gods		Promethium
Named after the Greek goddess of the Moon		Selenium
Named after a village in Scotland, near which its ore was discovered in 1787; the only element that's named after a place in the UK		Strontium
Name comes from the Greek for 'artificial' or 'man–made'		Technetium
Named from the Latin for the planet Earth (Tellus – a variation on Terra)		Tellurium
Modern name comes from the Swedish for 'heavy stone'		Tungsten
From the Greek for 'foreign' or 'stranger'		Xenon

Alternative names

Stibium in Latin – hence its symbol (Sb)		Antimony
Aurum in Latin v hence its symbol (Au)		Gold
Ferrum in Latin – hence its symbol (Fe); thus, the words ferrous, ferric and ferrate indicate that a substance contains		Iron
Argentum in Latin – hence its symbol (Ag); argent in French, argento in Italian, plata in Spanish		Silver
Plumbum in Latin – hence its symbol (Pb)		Lead
Formerly known as quicksilver; also formerly known (in 'New Latin') as hydrargyrum – a Latinised form of the Greek words for water and silver; hence its symbol (Hg)		Mercury
Named (or described as) "dephlogisticated air" by Joseph Priestley, when he discovered it in 1774		Oxygen
Kalium in Latin – hence its symbol (K)		Potassium
Natrium in Latin – hence its symbol (Na)		Sodium
Referred to in (English versions of) the Bible as brimstone		Sulphur
Wolfram in German, and in other European languages (especially the Slavic ones) – hence its symbol (W)		Tungsten

Flame Colours

Q: What's the colour of the flame that's produced when a salt of ... burns?		A:
Barium		Light green
Calcium		Orange (brick red)
Copper		Blue/green
Iron		Gold
Lead		Blue/white
Lithium		Bright red
Magnesium		White
Potassium		Lilac (purple)
Sodium		Yellow (bright orange)
Strontium		Deep red
Titanium		White

Other

Some of these may be quite hard if asked as they stand – it may help sometimes to give the atomic number.

The first element, alphabetically		Actinium
The most abundant metal in the Earth's crust		Aluminium
The only metal that expands on cooling (some of its alloys do also)		Antimony
The most common inert gas, and the third most abundant gas in the Earth's atmosphere at just under 1%		Argon
Frequently used for murder, until the introduction in 1836 of the Marsh test; also detected, along with other metallic elements, by the Reinsch test		Arsenic
Widely used in Victorian times, in home decor – especially wallpaper – to give a green colour
Heaviest of the halogens (atomic number 85): 33 isotopes, all radioactive; produced by the decay of uranium–235 and uranium–238		Astatine
Used in a meal that shows up on X–rays		Barium
Used in various medicines, for example to treat gastric ulcers		Bismuth
The only element apart from mercury that's liquid at room temperature (boils at 59°C); the third lightest halogen, atomic number 35		Bromine
Cited in the SI definition of the second, and used in atomic clocks		Caesium
Hardness of water is chiefly caused by ions of		Calcium
		Magnesium
Present in all organic compounds		Carbon
Forms more compounds than any other element apart from hydrogen
Highest melting point of any element (c. 4,000oC)
Second most abundant element (by mass) in the human body, after oxygen
Diamond, graphite, buckminsterfullerene ('Bucky balls'), graphene and the rare lonsdaleite are allotropes of
The more abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon (about 98.89%); used as the standard for atomic weights (replaced oxygen in 1961)		Carbon–12
Radioactive isotope of carbon, used as the basis for carbon dating		Carbon–14
First isolated by Carl Wilhelm Scheele, 1774		Chlorine
Metal impurity that makes ruby red and emerald green		Chromium
Added to steel to make stainless steel (see Alloys)
Gives its name to a greenish–blue pigment, which contains its aluminate (atomic number 27)		Cobalt
Elements other than iron that produce magnetic fields		Cobalt
		Nickel
The green flame test is a test for		Copper
Atomic number 110: named in 2003 after the German city where it was discovered in 1994 (at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research)		Darmstadtium
Rare isotope of hydrogen, with a neutron as well as a proton in its nucleus; atomic weight (approximately) 2; sometimes called heavy hydrogen; its oxide is heavy water		Deuterium
Atomic number 100		Fermium
The most electronegative element (i.e. the most likely to attract electrons), and thus it tends to be the most reactive		Fluorine
The sun converts hydrogen into		Helium
The second most abundant element in the Universe: believed to make up approximately 24% of all matter, by mass, and a similar proportion of all stars, including the Sun (and of Jupiter)
Formed when a hydrogen bomb is detonated; alpha particles are nuclei of
Lowest melting point (–268.9°C) and lowest boiling point (–270.2°C)
The most abundant element in the Universe: believed to make up approximately 75% of all matter, by mass, and a similar proportion of all stars, including the Sun (and of Jupiter)		Hydrogen
The lightest gas
Forms more compounds than any other element
Present in all acids
The prefix 'bi–' in the name of a chemical compound (e.g. sodium bicarbonate) indicates the presence of
Protium is the most common isotope of
Used as a test for starch (and vice versa) – together they form a very dark blue–black complex		Iodine
Metallic element that's most resistant to corrosion (atomic number 77)		Iridium
Metallic element that's present in haemoglobin and myoglobin – two proteins that play essential roles in vertebrate metabolism, respectively the transportation of oxygen by the blood and the storage of oxygen in muscles		Iron
The two metallic elements that the Earth's core is thought to be made of		Iron
		Nickel
Eventual product of the radioactive decay of Uranium		Lead
The first metal in the Periodic Table (atomic number 3), and the lightest (relative density 0.534, compared to aluminium's 2.699)		Lithium
The only metal that's liquid at room temperature		Mercury
Metal (atomic number 12) that burns vigorously, with a brilliant white flame, at comparatively low temperatures		Magnesium
Found to be present in chlorophyll in 1906 – the first time that it had been detected in living tissue
The first 'trans–Uranic' element (atomic number 93) – created artificially before small naturally–occurring deposits were discovered		Neptunium
All proteins contain Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and		Nitrogen
78% of the Earth's atmosphere is		Nitrogen
Metallic element that's the heaviest known substance (at room temperature)		Osmium
Discovered independently by Priestley (1774) and Scheele (1771)		Oxygen
Carbohydrates contain carbon, hydrogen and
All compounds ending in –ite must contain
The third most abundant element in the universe (after hydrogen and helium), and the most common in the Earth's crust (49%); also the most abundant, by weight, in the human body (65% – carbon is next at 18.5%)
Highly reactive element: exists in several allotropes including white, red and black; usually stored under water		Phosphorus
The thirteenth element to be discovered, and the first that hadn't been known since ancient times: isolated from urine, in 1669, by the German alchemist Hennig Brand
Used to fuel most modern nuclear weapons		Plutonium
The second trans–Uranic element (after Neptunium) – atomic number 94
Atomic number 61: like technetium, it has no stable isotopes and before being found in nature it was produced artificially (in the US Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, in 1945 – but not announced until 1947)		Promethium
The two radioactive elements that were discovered (extracted from pitchblende) by Marie Curie, for which she won the Nobel Physics prize in 1911		Radium
		Polonium
Radioactive noble (inert) gas to which radium decomposes		Radon
The densest known gas
Longest name (13 letters) – reportedly first detected in 1964 at Dubna in the Soviet Union; synthesised at Berkeley, California in 1969, and independently confirmed in 1973		Rutherfordium
The second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (27% – oxygen 49%)		Silicon
Metal with the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity		Silver
First in the Periodic Table whose symbol starts with a different letter from its English name (atomic number 11)		Sodium
Causes the dark 'D' lines in the sun's spectrum; burns with a yellow flame
Stored in oil because it oxidises rapidly in air and reacts violently with water
Salts used in fireworks to produce a crimson flame; also used in toothpaste		Strontium
The word 'pyrites' (pie–RYE–tees or pie–rights), as in 'iron pyrites', indicates the presence of (compounded with a metal)		Sulphur
The prefix 'thio–' in the name of a compound indicates that in its structure, an atom of oxygen has been replaced by one of
Described as "lemon yellow sintered microcrystals" in appearance (atomic number 16)
The lowest–numbered element with no stable isotopes (atomic number 43); the first element to have been produced artificially before being found in nature		Technetium
Shortest name		Tin
Has ten stable isotopes (more than any other element)
Mined, assessed, coined and sold in a stannary (town)
Dioxide used as white pigment for paints, toothpaste, etc.		Titanium
Radioactive isotope of hydrogen – atomic weight 3		Tritium
Most commonly used for light–bulb filaments		Tungsten
Highest melting point of any metal (3,410 °C)
The most complicated element that occurs naturally (atomic number 92)		Uranium
Yellowcake is a stage in the production of
The only fissile isotope, of any element, found in economic quantity in nature; enriched uranium has a higher proportion of it		Uranium–235
The only element whose name begins with X		Xenon
Galvanisation involves coating with		Zinc
The last element but one, alphabetically
The last element, alphabetically – its oxide is often used as a substitute for diamonds or other gemstones		Zirconium

© Haydn Thompson 2017–25