Researching Elements - How Many Are There?

[Noog_Z]

Okay, so, in science class today, we learned about atoms and compounds and whatnot
And I said to my teacher that I read somewhere that there are 131 elements, and she said that there are 90 main ones and about 17 others, and so she said that if I researched this some more, tell her.

The book I read obviously doesn't have ALL the elements in it seeing as it was a story with every second chapter explaining the science.

So I was wondering if anyone could direct me to a site or give me all 131 elements

if there is (:

Thank you (:

 

[tiny-tim]

Welcome to PF!

Hi Noog_Z! Welcome to PF!

So I was wondering if anyone could direct me to a site or give me all 131 elements

wikipedia is always a good place to start …

try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_elements_by_atomic_number, and the links from there.

 

[Noog_Z]

oh yeah, wikipedia, good old website (:
I asked my dad, and his reply was...
'what book was it?'
and i replied with Science of Dicsworld

then he said, that's all magic crap

so DON"T WORRY BOUT me, i had a blonde moment X) <----(thats a smiley face there, if u turn ur head sideways,,,)

but can someone tell me, I am having a debate with my friend on whther
the temperatures for our science prac of adding salt to water boiling will increase its temperature,

in my group, we got all our results underneath 100°c, but then when me and my dad went 'surfing the net' we found that the temperatures should be like, 1 degree higher, not 6 degrees or so lower.

yet, my friend says it should be lower, not higher.

which one is it? I'm going to ask my teacher as well (:

 

[f95toli]

and i replied with Science of Dicsworld

then he said, that's all magic crap

I haven't read the book but I am reasonably sure that "Science of Discworld" is actually a "proper" pop-sci book. Pratchet has written a few pop-sci books in collaboration with other authors and in all of them he is using Discworld (or charachers from Discworld) as a setting to discuss real science and philosophy of Science (there is another book which is about evolution). The setting is fictional but the science is real.
So don't worry about it, you can probably learn quite a lot of science by reading them.

 

[Noog_Z]

I haven't read the book but I am reasonably sure that "Science of Discworld" is actually a "proper" pop-sci book. Pratchet has written a few pop-sci books in collaboration with other authors and in all of them he is using Discworld (or charachers from Discworld) as a setting to discuss real science and philosophy of Science (there is another book which is about evolution). The setting is fictional but the science is real.
So don't worry about it, you can probably learn quite a lot of science by reading them.

oh okay (: that's good then, right now I'm reading Mort, so I'm pretty sure that unless people can actually walk through walls by imagining they aren't there, it's not very scientific ... (:

oh and i handed in my prac report today, so I should get whether my evaluation was right, or whether my friends was right (: I shall have the answer on... i don't know when my next science class is... i think it would be on a... tuesday (: thumbs up (Y)

 

[Division]

You teacher is right, technically.

There are in all close to 100 elements that are created by nature, but close to 40 elements that the human kind have created.

Such as Borium, Rutherfordium, Einsteinium and many more, are elements created by scientists in labs.

The number of elements are still increasing, however.

 

[Astronuc]

Another good resource on the elements is - http://www.webelements.com/

One can find articles on each element.

Elements 1-92 are found naturally on earth. The transuranics 93-98 are found in nuclear reactor spent fuel, particularly spent MOX fuel, and maybe found as trace elements in uranium deposits, particularly those they have experienced some amount of fission (e.g. Oklo deposit). The rest are manufactured by a variety of ion bombardment techniques.

 

[Noog_Z]

Thanks for the replies, that sorts it out (:

 

[mathman]

Minor quibble: Among the elements 1 to 92, elements 43, 61, 85, and 87 are not found in nature.

 

[Astronuc]

Minor quibble: Among the elements 1 to 92, elements 43, 61, 85, and 87 are not found in nature.

Actually in the Oklo deposit where some fission process did occur, Tc and Pm would occur naturally, or in some pitchblendes where spontaneous fission of U-238 occurs. Otherwise Tc has been observed in stars.

Finally in 1962, technetium-99 was isolated and identified in African pitchblende (a uranium rich ore) in extremely minute quantities as a spontaneous fission product of uranium-238 by B.T. Kenna and P.K. Kuroda. If it does exist, the concentration must be very small. Technetium has been found in the spectrum of S-, M-, and N-type stars, and its presence in stellar matter is leading to new theories of the production of heavy elements in the stars.

http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/43.html

Promethium, however, has been identified in the spectrum of the star HR465 in Andromeda.
http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/61.html

http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/85.html - It is expected that there is less than 1 oz of astatine in the Earth's crust.

http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/87.html

While it occurs naturally in uranium minerals, there is probably less than an ounce of francium at any time in the total crust of the earth. It has the highest equivalent weight of any element, and is the most unstable of the first 101 elements of the periodic system.