Rhodium, the element of the week

This is a continuation of element of the week. My mom picked out Rhodium because she never heard of it. Rhodium and Rhenium (75) are easy to confuse. When I first heard of the elements I had a hard time distinguishing the two because they both start with "Rh". Now forget about Rhenium, and think about Rhodium.

Rhodium is a supershiny metal. In fact it is too shiny. It is shinier than platinum (78), gold (79), silver (47), and palladium (46). It is found in South Africa, Russia, and in minute quantities around Sudbury,        Ontario. South Africa is the world's leading producer of rhodium. Rhodium is prone to price swings. As of October 2007 Rhodium was worth eight times as much as gold, and thousands of times as much as copper (wow!). It is now still worth twice as much as gold, which is still precious. Rhodium is used in jewelry because it enhances the luster. Rhodium's melting point is 1966 degrees Celsius and its boiling point is 3727 degrees Celsius. It is a transition metal located around gold and silver, in what I call "the precious metals corridor".
Although it is a precious metal it is sometimes used in the manufacturing of cars, but I don't know exactly how.

Now you know more about one of the most precious metals. And now, inform all the pirates that there is a metal more precious than gold.

The halogens

The halogens are a group of five elements of the periodic table. They are Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine, Iodine, and Astatine. They all have seven outer electrons except for astatine. Their compounds and ions are called halides. Let's take a look at these elements.

This one is Fluorine. Alone it is F2.It is the most reactive of the halogens and it reacts with almost all the elements. Its atomic number is 9 and its atomic weight is 18.99. It is a pale yellow-green gas and is very poisonous. It is never used in school laboratories because it attacks glass, but it can be useful in substances like toothpaste. It is found in xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4), freon (CF2Cl2), fluorospar (CaF2), and cryolite (Na3AlF6)as well as many other compounds.

  After fluorine is chlorine. Chlorine's atomic number is 17 and its atomic weight is 35.45. In the picture it is shown on its own but it only occurs naturally in compounds. As with fluorine it is a gas but it is greener. Its most well-known compound is salt (NaCl). It is also found in sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl)which is used to make paper white. Hydrogen chloride (HCl) is a colorless gas that is made by burning hydrogen in chlorine. It dissolves in water to form hydrochloric acid which is used to etch metals.

Next is bromine. It is one of the two liquids on the periodic table (mercury is the other) and it gives off toxic fumes. Its atomic number is 35 and its atomic weight is 79.91. Alone it is Br2 but, like chlorine it is only naturally found in compounds. Its most common compound is sodium bromide (NaBr) which is found in sea water. Another compound, silver bromide (AgBr)is used in photography, while yet another compound, hydrogen bromide has the same properties of hydrochloric acid.

This one is Iodine. Its atomic number is 53 and its atomic weight is 126.90. It is found in foods such as seaweed, seafood, cod liver oil, and fruits and vegetables. Don't panic about that because it it healthy. When heated it gives off a purple vapor. Like the other halogens it is paired up with sodium, this time in sodium iodate (NaIO3). Iodine dissolved in ethanol (C2H5OH) is called tincture of iodine and is dabbed on cuts.

There is not much to say about astatine besides it is a radioactive, unstable element.

carbon is also in water (an expansion of the previous post)

Remember the post about carbon? Carbon is also in water. Just joking! This little fishy's name is Carbon (and you can tell why). But really there is carbon in Carbon. If you look in the molecules of DNA in any animal you will see carbon. Also there is carbon in that plastic treasure chest. Carbon is used in plastics such as polyvinylchloride. In the blue paper backdrop there is carbon. Paper is made from trees which in turn, has carbon (like every living thing). One more thing. The filtration system (not shown) has a carbon filter. It helps clean the tank for Carbon, and all the other fishies in the tank (also not shown) but sometimes we have to clean the tank.

Carbon-It's Everywhere!

Carbon is element #6 on the periodic table. It is a member of group IV. Its symbol is C. Its atomic weight is 12.0. It is simple yet- it's everywhere! It's in you, it's in me, it's in your computer, it's in almost anything! in fact It's in well over 2,000,000 compounds! I will show six.

First on the list is Carbon Dioxide (CO2). For those of you unaccustomed to science, the Os are oxygen and the C is carbon. Carbon dioxide is a poisonous gas that we exhale. Luckily, trees neutralize the CO2 in the air. CO2 is used in fire extinguishers, because it prevents oxygen (O2) from reaching the fire (fire needs oxygen just like us). CO2 makes up a minute quantity of the air.

Methane. CH4. Here the H's are hydrogen. Methane is also a poisonous gas. It is found mostly on the planet Uranus but is also found on earth.  It is a member of the alkane  family. The alkanes are molecules with just carbon and hydrogen. Methane is the simplest of the alkanes, having one carbon atom. It reacts with the halogens (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine).

The alkene family is kind of like the alkane family. Ethene is from the alkene family. It is written as CH2=CH2. The "=" means a double bond with the carbon atoms. Ethene is a colorless, sweet-smelling gas and is used in plastics.

This is ethyne. It is a member of the alkyne family. It cannot be written with this Mac I am using because it is written as CH(three lines above each other)CH. It has a triple bond between the two carbon atoms. It is also a gas and is the only common alkyne. It reacts very explosively with chlorine. It is used to make polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and other vinyl compounds.

Freon is a halogenoalkane (an alkane but instead of hydrogen, there are halogens present). Freon is also a chlorofluorocarbon (a compound of chlorine ( Cl), fluorine (F), and carbon). Freon used to be used as an aerosol propellant, but when holes in the ozone  layer were discovered they started using other propellants.

Calcium carbonate or if you prefer CaCO3. It is a crumbly, insoluble powder. This is chalk. Kiddies use it on your driveway (sidewalk chalk). It is used to obtain calcium oxide. It is also used to make cement and is used in building.


What would we do without carbon? Luckily, It's everywhere!!!!!

cabbage science

The other day I did a science experiment but did'nt post because I posted "flags of the nations" .Well anyways the experiment went as follows:
 You soak a purple cabbage leaf in boiling water and let it sit. You then get 3 cups all apparently containing pure water. In fact only one contains pure water, the others containing white vinegar and the other containing biocarbonate of soda (baking soda) mixed with water. You pour the cabbage water into each cup and strangely the water becomes pale purple, the vinegar turns red, and the biocarbonate of soda turns green.

The cabbage juice has the property of turning red in acid and green in alkaline liquids. The water which is neutral just waters it down.

P.S. If you are wondering about the second picture I did a real experiment like I mixed soapy water with the cabbage juice. As you can see in the picture it was neutral.

colors

I used to think that the color wheel was like the one in sixths until I checked this website. 

It taught me that cyan, magenta, and yellow were the primary colors and not red, yellow ,and blue because cyan, magenta, and yellow mixed made black better than the original primary colors.

Most people think that colors are tangible substances but really they are wavelengths of light reflecting into our eyes. For example, my green IKEA couch only reflects green light into our eyes. But if all of a sudden blue light reflected off of it then it would be a blue IKEA couch (and maybe the IKEA company wouldn't recognize it). 

P.S. Today is my 124 month birthday!