Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Periodic Chart of the Elements

Title: Periodic Charts of the Elements
Date: Unknown, probably senior year
Category: Information
Current Status: Recycled

It seems like every year that I had some sort of chemistry based science class, I would get one of these things. I always saved them because I never knew when I might need to know the atomic weight of niobium. Of course, I didn't actually make this a handy reference tool since I've had it in the attic for who knows how many years.
Of course, now we have the internets, a series of tubes that transport information all across the universe (even Cleveland). Instead of keeping pieces of paper like this around, I can go look it up online. And I just did that. According to this chart, my hard copy of the periodic table is outdated. On my chart, elements 104 and 105 are unnamed. According to WebElements, 104 is now rutherfordium and 105 is dubnium. And there are another 13 elements.
I see that despite these additions, they still haven't classified Twinkies. I don't know what those things are, but they aren't natural.
I probably got this one from 12th grade AP Chemistry with the always entertaining Mr. Powell. I really wasn't that interested in science back then, and I wasn't that great of a student. Mr. Powell was a great teacher, but I probably could've gotten a lot more out of that class if I had really realized how much fun science can be. I wish I had had a Bill Nye program as an elementary school student. Oh well. At least I've developed an interest in science as an adult.

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