Name:
Period:
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NOVA: Hunting the Elements
Part 1: Quest for Gold; Sound of Bronze; Atomic Zoom; the Periodic Table; Explosively Reactive
(1 hr)
Video at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/hunting-elements.html
Color in these groups:
noble metals
noble gases
elements of life (CHNOPS)
rare earths
radioactive
synthetic
gold
purple
green
blue
red
gray
Gold - Au
1.
Write the number of subatomic particles in gold:
Protons:
Electrons:
Factoid: All the gold ever mined since ancient times would fit into a cube 60 feet on a side.
2. Give one property of gold.
What does “luster” mean?
Factoid: At the Cortez mine in Nevada, each truck holds 400 tons. Each ton of rock contains about
one ounce of gold. At $1,800/oz, that works out to $720,000/truck.
3. What determines how reactive an element is?
4. About ___________ of the elements are metals. How an atom reacts chemically depends on
___________________________________________________________________________ ,
and gold is not very social.
5. Which are the “noble metals”? Color code them on the blank periodic table.
6. Only a few natural elements have greater density than gold. They are:
Factoid: Each gold bar, weighing about 60 pounds, and representing about a million pounds of rock
that was moved and processed, is worth about a million and a half dollars.
Copper - Cu
7. Write the number of subatomic particles in copper:
Protons:
Electrons:
Factoid: The ancients first learned how to heat rocks to extract copper at least 7,000 years ago.
8. List three uses of copper.
9. Give one property of copper.
Tin - Sn
10. Tin added in small amounts to copper makes __________________, the first man-made metal
alloy. Once forged into tools and weapons, this alloy played such a defining role in human
civilization that we name an entire age after it. The early history of civilization is often divided into
the Stone Age, the ---- Age, and the Iron Age.
11. Write the number of subatomic particles in tin:
Protons:
Electrons:
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12. How are atoms arranged in pure metals?
13. Describe what makes metals conductive.
This same structural feature also creates flexible, metallic bonds among the atoms. In copper,
they can slide past each other easily, which makes it relatively soft and easy to dent, not right for a
bell.
Electron Microscope
Factoid: To pick out an atom, the electron microscope must “zoom in” a hundred million times. If we
were looking at the entire United States from 2,000 miles above earth, and we zoomed in
100,000,000 times, we would be able to pick out a ladybug in the grass.
14. Why is the electron microscope wrapped in acoustic blankets?
15. Describe the appearance of the bronze sample under the electron microscope.
Factoid: The electron microscope can only pick out the outermost boundaries around atoms. The
interior is 10,000 times smaller. If the outer boundary of a hydrogen atom, where the electron is
found, were enlarged to be two miles wide, about the size of a city, the single proton in its nucleus
would be the size of a golf ball.
16. What do protons have to do with the identity an element?
The number of protons is called the __________________________________.
17. Label the atomic number and atomic symbol, of calcium:
20
Ca
Calcium
40.08
18. How come the symbol for gold is Au, when the word gold doesn’t include the letters A and U?
79
Au
Gold
197.0
19. More than 70% of the elements in the Periodic Table are metals: shiny malleable (bendable)
materials that conduct electricity. Draw in the diagonal zig-zag line that separates metals from
nonmetals on the Periodic Table.
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20. Give an example of an everyday object made from each of the following elements:
a. Calcium –
b. Bismuth –
c. Bromine –
21. In the late 1860’s, Mendeleev published his periodic table. He knew nothing about protons,
atomic numbers, or even about atoms. Mendeleev created 63 cards, one for each element known
at the time, distinguishing them by ___________________________________.
Nineteenth-century scientists didn’t know about atoms, or the weight of atoms, but they could
compare the weights of elements. What did they use as the unit of comparison?
22. Mendeleev lived long enough to see three gaps in his Periodic Table filled by the discoveries of
________________________________________________.
23. Where did the noble gases get their name?
24. Protons determine the identity of an element, while electrons determine _____________________
_____________________________________________________________________________.
25. Electrons occupy concentric shells around the nucleus. The first shell maxes out at _____
electrons, the second holds _______ electrons, and the third goes up to ________. An atom with
_____ electron in its outer shell is a “happy, satisfied” atom, and is unreactive.
Draw in the maximum number of electrons
in each shell. Electrons in the third shell are
shown as a model.




proton











Chlorine - Cl
26. The halogens occupy the column just before the noble gases. Halogens have an outer shell that
needs just one more electron to be full, making them very reactive. The most notorious halogen is
chlorine, which was used as a poison gas during World War One. Color in the halogen family on
the first page.
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27. Give the number of atomic particles in chlorine:
Protons:
Electrons:
Chlorine tends to ( take / give away ) one electron when it reacts.
28. The alkali metals are located ______________________________________________________.
Color them in on the first page.
Alkali metals ALL have ________ electron(s) in the outer shell.
29. Describe what you see when sodium reacts with water.
30. What is the product of the reaction of sodium metal and chlorine gas?
Oxygen - O
Factoid: ANFO, which stands for ammonium nitrate/fuel oil, is widely used in mining and construction.
Unfortunately, it is also used in Improvised Explosive Devices, where it is known as a fertilizer bomb.
31. Analysis of residue from explosions can identify what was in the bomb. The ion chromatograph
looks for positively or negatively charged particles, called _________.
Nitrates, a common ingredient in explosives, contain ______________ and ____________ atoms
32. The drawing below shows how the atoms in ANFO rearrange to form the products, carbon dioxide
(CO2), nitrogen gas (N2), and water (H2O). What causes the release of energy?
H
C
O
N
O O
H
C
H
O
N
O O
H
O
H
H
C
O
H
O
N
N
O
C
O
H
O
33. We see combustion reactions of oxygen every day.
The burning of a candle is the reaction of oxygen gas with the element ________________.
The slow rusting of a car is the reaction of oxygen gas with the element ________________.
34. How can we speed up a fire to create an explosion?
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Part 2: Elements of Life, Elemental Earth, Rare Earth Elements, Radioactive Dating, and Manmade
Elements (1 hr)
Elements of Life
35. List a common, hardware store source, for each of the six elements of life:
C, carbon:
H, hydrogen:
N, nitrogen
P, phosphorus:
36. The German alchemist, Hennig Brandt, discovered phosphorus around 1669. This was the first
element isolated from a living creature. What was his source of phosphorus?
Phosphorus is involved in ____________, which is the molecule that all cells use for energy.
What happens to the solution containing phosphorus is exposed to air?
37. The six CHNOPS elements make up 97% of our body’s weight. The other 3% are called the trace
elements. What can happen when excessive trace elements are lost from the body, such as by
sweating?
38. Describe a body function or part that utilizes each of these trace elements:
a. Calcium –
b. Iron –
c. Zinc–
d. Potassium –
e. Magnesium –
f.
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Sodium –
6
39. When life began on earth, there was no oxygen in the air. Then Cyanobacteria (blue-green
algae) evolved to become oxygen-making machines. What three things did the cyanobacteria
need for growth?
Elemental Earth
40. What is the origin of hydrogen, the smallest element?
41. Helium is produced when fusion, the most energetic reaction in the cosmos, forces ______ (how
many?) ____________________ atoms together.
42. How are larger elements in the periodic table made?
43. Elements heavier than iron are created when a star in its death throes begins to collapse and a
powerful explosion called a ______________________ occurs.
44. Sand is made of the two elements, ______________________________________________.
45. What is added to Gorilla Glass to make it stronger than normal glass?
Rare Earth Elements
46. There are 15 rare earth elements: the Lanthanide series (elements 57-71) plus scandium and
yttrium. Color them in on the front page.
47. Neodymium is a rare earth that is the key ingredient in the world’s strongest magnets. What are
some uses for neodymium magnets?
48. Most, in fact 98%, of rare earth elements come from ______________________. How many rare
earth mines are there in the U.S.?
49. Rare earth elements are not rare; they are just hard to separate. How are the fifteen rare earth
elements chemically similar?
50. The main ingredient in neodymium magnets is _____________. They also contain much smaller
amounts of the elements:
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51. Why are rare earth elements in such short supply?
52. How do sharks react to rare earth metals?
53. Describe the following parts of the lemon shark experiment:
Independent Variable –
Dependent Variable –
Control Group -
Carbon Isotopes
54. Compare the compositions of these carbon isotopes by filling in the table:
Protons
Electrons
Neutrons
Carbon-12
Carbon-13
Carbon-14
55. Carbon-14 is used for dating objects. What happens to carbon-14 over time?
Manmade Elements
56. Give the number of subatomic particles in uranium:
a. Protons:
b. Electrons:
c. Neutrons:
57. How is the mousetrap simulation similar to a fission chain reaction?
58. What element was used as fuel for the “Little Boy” bomb? Why was this element not used in any
other bombs?
59. What element was used as fuel for the “Fat Man” bomb? What was unique about this element?
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