Thursday, October 7, 2010

Why Big Fr and Hungry F

1. Francium is the biggest element on the periodic table  because it has the most electron shells and has only one valence electron, which makes the attraction between the valence shell and the nucleus lower. It is also the element with the lowest Ionization Energy and Electronegativity because since it is the largest atom, it has the lowest capability to gain an electron, and requires the lowest amount of energy to lose electrons.

2. Helium is the smallest atom because it has only one electron shell, in which it is full, which makes the attraction between the nucleus and the valence shell the greatest. It has the highest ionization energy because since it is the smallest atom, the attraction between the electrons and the nucleus are the greatest out of all the other elements, which accounts for helium's high rate of attracting valence electrons.

3. Noble gases do not have electronegativity values because they already has a full valence shell, which means they have no capability of losing or gaining electrons.

4. Flourine has the highest electronegativity because since it is the smallest non-noble gas element, it requires the most energy to lose an electron because the attraction between its valence electrons and nucleus is greatest.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Nitrogen is Element #7

1. Nitrogen, also known as Nitrogeno in spanish, or azote in french, is the seventh element on the periodic table. It gets its name from a mineral known as "niter" (potassium nitrate), from which it can be prepared. My name refers to my physical and chemical form, which is a nonmetallic element that constitutes nearly four-fifths of the air by volume.











2. 

3. Most isotopes of Nitrogen contain 7 protons and 7 neutrons in their nucleus. The naturally occurring
isotopes of nitrogen are N-14 and N-15. N-13 has a half-life of 10 minutes and the remaining isotopes have half lives of seconds or less. Nitrogen takes up 78% of the atmosphere by volume, and its average atomic mass is 14.01 grams.

4. In a neutral atom of Nitrogen, there are seven electrons, and two electron shells.

5. The atomic radius of a Nitrogen atom is 65 picometers.

6. In its pure elemental form, Nitrogen is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and generally inert. It has a melting point of -210 degrees celsius, and a boiling point of -195.8 degrees celsius. It has five electrons in its outer shell, so it is trivalent in most compounds.

7. The abundance of Nitrogen in a human body is 2.57%, however in the atmosphere, contains 4 times as much volume as oxygen.(78%). Nitrogen's abundance in Earth's crust is 19 parts per million by weight, and in the solar system, is 1,000 parts per million by weight.

8. Compounds that are formed by Nitrogen are:
Sodium Nitrate-

Potassium Nitrate-

Nitric Acid-

Ammonia-

9. Nitrogen was discovered by Daniel Rutherford in 1772, and was called noxious/fixed air at the time. It was being studied by multiple scientists and was observed to be the principle component of air in which animals had suffocated and flames had burned to extinction. Nitrogen was discovered by taking oxygen and carbon dioxide from the air and noticing that the left over gas could not support living organisms.

10. Although Nitrogen cannot support living organisms, it provides amino acids to plants and proteins to the human body produced by plants. Also, most industrially important compounds contain nitrogen, such as ammonia and nitric acid.  When nitrogen bonds are broken, large amounts of useful energy is often released a well.

11.Some interesting facts about nitrogen are: it makes up 78% of Earth's atmosphere but only 3% of Mars' atmosphere. The sound you hear when you crack your knuckles is actually nitrogen gas bubbles popping.  It is responsible for the orange-red, blue-green, blue-violet, and deep violet colours of the aurora. It is an ingredient in laughing gas. 



12. My reference: www.webelements.com/nitrogen

Friday, August 27, 2010

WELCOME

Welcome to Mason's Blog! Here, you can explore my interests and find out about what is going on in my life.

The first thing you should know about me is that I love to spend time with my friends and family. I also enjoy playing basketball, watching t.v., and sleeping in my free time, but my number one priority is and always will be school. School and education is very important to me because the choices I make today will affect me for the rest of my life, and education has a major impact on that.

Ever since I was a little kid, I always loved to help people with their problems, which makes me think about what I want to be when I get older. As of right now, I hope to graduate from high school and go to college, where I will major in anatomy, and see where that will take me later on. Most of all, I just dream of living a happy and healthy life.