• Question: can you name every element in order

    Asked by wario5000 to Aime, Akshat, Diana, Gemma, Judith on 13 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Aimé Fournier

      Aimé Fournier answered on 9 Jun 2011:

      No. I was a strong physics student but not so great at chemistry. I can get through hydrogen, helium, lithium and then I look them up. I know those because you can study them with more basic quantum mechanics than you can the heavier elements. I know carbon is the 6th because carbon is so important, you keep reading about it. Physics is about understanding things regardless of their names. So in physics we learned why the table of the elements has its shape, but not the element names.

    • Photo: Akshat Rathi

      Akshat Rathi answered on 9 Jun 2011:

      Yes, up to Krypton which is 36th element in the periodic table. After that I can still name and place many other elements in the periodic table but not quite in order. 🙂

    • Photo: Gemma Sharp

      Gemma Sharp answered on 9 Jun 2011:

      Nope. Not at all. To be honest, in my work I hardly ever deal with elements on their own like that.

      I deal with molecules (several atoms stuck together), and a lot of the time we just call them by their molecule name without having a clue which elements make them up… It annoys my friend who’s a chemist, but I think the different sciences are all about studying things at different levels.

      I don’t think biologists need to be able to name every element in order… or that’s what I like to tell myself 🙂

    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 10 Jun 2011:

      Nope, I had to learn the first 20 in order in school but doing polymers for a PhD means I only ever seem to use Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrgoen. I think if you carry on science you’ll remember as many as you need to remember but to be honest-we can just look it up if we don’t know off the top of our heads 🙂

    • Photo: Diana Samuel

      Diana Samuel answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      With the help of a periodic table or Wikipedia, sure!

Comments

  • Photo: Helen

    Helen commented on :

    I can’t even name them out of order. I never studied sciences at school, and psychology is a human/social science, so the elements of the physical world have never been a topic I have needed. But I guess in psychology there are other ‘psychological elements’ like thought, emotion and behaviour that are important.