My original presentation on mercury had some missing components in it. I would like to add to two more categories in the grading sheet: Periodic Table and Elemental Importance.

Periodic Table:

In my original presentation, I mentioned some connections to other elements and characteristics. I would like to explain how the periodic table is arranged as well as what information each element “square” gives.

The periodic table is organised by periods (the rows) and groups (the columns). The elements are placed based off the atomic number and characteristics. Each element in each group have similar characteristics. For example, noble gases in group 17 are all very un-reactive and have full outer shells.

Each little “box” to separate elements contain different information about that element. Sometimes it can have more or less information based off what table you are looking at. If I use my element as an example, mercury, it contains the name, symbol, atomic number and weight, and ionic charge. The name would be mercury, and the symbol is Hg. The atomic number is the number of protons or electrons (atoms have the same amount of both) and in this case, it is 80. The atomic weight is the weight of one atom. Mercury has an atomic weight of 200.6 amu (atomic mass units).

Elemental Importance:

I explained that I chose mercury because I wanted an element that was interesting but at the same time not a lot of people knew much about. I didn’t go that into detail though.

I chose this element because I didn’t know too much about it, however I knew that it looked very interesting being a liquid metal at room temperature and that stuff could float of it. I really wanted to learn more about it. Not only that, but it wasn’t an element that stood out on the periodic table – it is next to gold which takes the attention. Once I had done some more research I learned it wasn’t the only element that was liquid at room temperature, although there were only a few. After learning that cannon balls could float on it, I was even more interested. Its surface tension and density amazed me. In class when I saw elements reacting with water and magnesium on fire right before my eyes I knew I would want to do an element that either wasn’t very reactive or one that was extremely reactive. Knowing that more reactive ones would probably be chosen relatively quickly, I went for one that could still react but wasn’t too reactive to the point that it explodes when it touches air. When researching mercury’s reactivity, I learned that it only reacted with a few things. I thought that all these facts together really fit the type element I wanted to do a project on.