Video
Periodic Table
By Melissa Boston
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Carbon is unique in that it is known to form up to 10 million different compounds. Carbon is important to the existence of life.
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Francium is the rarest element on earth. There are probably no more than a few ounces of it on earth at any given time.
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The only letter not in the periodic table is the letter J.
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The country Argentina is named after the element silver (symbol Ag) which is argentum in Latin.
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Although there is helium on Earth, it was first discovered by observing the sun
Fun Facts about the Periodic Table
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Each element has its own name and abbreviation in the periodic table. Some of the abbreviations are easy to remember, like H for hydrogen. Some are a bit harder like Fe for iron or Au for gold. For gold the "Au" comes from the Latin word for gold "aurum".
The rows on the periodic table are called periods, and the elements period number is the highest unexcited energy level for an electron of that element.
The columns in the Periodic Table are called Families, or groups. The elements within the same group share common properties and often the same electron arrangement. They also have the same number of valence electrons.
There are a total of 120 elements on the table
There are 18 columns or groups and different groups have different properties.