Chapter 2 It’s all elemental
Worksheet 2.1 What are elements made of?
1
Which of the following substances would be classified as an element? Give reasons for your choices.
water, oxygen, soap, milk, gold, aluminium foil, cocoa powder, diamond, potato, air, natural gas, flour,
rubber, balsa wood, magnesium ribbon.
Use the information below to answer questions 2-9.
A new super-heavy element was officially added to the periodic table in 2009, after a decade of research.
Element 112 is now the heaviest element in the periodic table and is about 277 times heavier than
hydrogen, the lightest element.
2
How many protons would be inside the nucleus of an atom of Element 112?
3
Why would Element 112 be more than 100 times heavier than an atom of hydrogen?
4
What is the mass number of hydrogen?
5
What is the mass number of Element 112 likely to be?
6
The new element could be named Copernicum. What symbol(s) could be used for the element?
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7
Which famous scientist would this element have been named after and what is he famous for?
8
Determine whether this element will be classified as a metal or a non-metal, and give reasons for your
answer.
9
What chemical reaction was used to form an atom of Element 112?
Use the information below to answer questions 10-12.
Heavy water is used in nuclear reactors. It is chemically the same as the water that comes out of the tap, but it
has two deuterium atoms in place of two hydrogen atoms. Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen; it has one
extra neutron. Thus the deuterium atom consists of one proton and one neutron in the atomic nucleus and
one orbiting electron. It is the extra neutron that makes heavy water about 10% heavier than normal. The
symbol used for deuterium is D so heavy water has the formula D2O.
10 What would the mass number of deuterium be?
11 Deuterium is an isotope of hydrogen. What does this mean?
12 Would hydrogen have a larger or smaller mass number than deuterium?
Use the Periodic Table on page 39 of Big Ideas Science 3 to answer the
following questions.
13 An atom has an atomic number of 19 and a mass number of 39.
a
What type of atom is this?
b
How many electrons would be in the nucleus of this atom?
c
How many neutrons would be in the nucleus of this atom?
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d
How would the electrons be arranged around this atom?
Electrons orbiting the nucleus of an atom can be considered to be arranged in shells. The first shell can hold
only two electrons. The second shell holds eight electrons.
14 Sodium is element number 11 in the periodic table. Draw a diagram to show how the electrons would be
arranged in shells around the nucleus of a sodium atom.
15 Chlorine is element number 17 in the periodic table. Draw a diagram to show how the electrons would be
arranged around the nucleus of a chlorine atom.
The next five questions refer to the following table:
Element U
Element V
Element W
Element X
Element Y
Number of protons
3
14
29
66
92
Mass Number
7
28
65
164
238
Number of neutrons
4
14
36
98
146
7
Symbol
28
U
3
65
V
14
164
W
29
X
66
16 What is the name of element U?
17 How many electrons will element Y have?
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238
Y
92
18 What is the atomic number of element W?
19 What is the name of element Y?
20 An isotope of element X exists. What would be different about an atom of the isotope to an atom as
described in the table?
21 Name this mystery element.
I am a metal that is often used to make cooking utensils. I am silvery grey in colour and I am often made
into very thin sheets. I am also very strong window frames and frames for houses can be made from
me. The number 11 is important to me as it indicates how positive I am about being an important
metal. My name starts with the letter S which is unusual because my symbol starts with the letter N.
What am I?
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