Chemistry, and the elements of the periodic table

     Once, a long time ago, people believed there were only 4 elements. Air, water, fire, and earth. Imagine how easy their high school chemistry test was. All you had to do was memorize those four words. But then came along a scientist by the name of Dmitri Mendeleev, who found, there were much more than a simple 4 elements, there was over 100! Then imagine how unfortunate the generation of high school students living in his time were with their chemistry test. Just their older siblings, older by 4 years, only had to memorize 4. Now they had to memorize over 100.

     Some of the earlier elements became real ones present in the periodic table. Air was sort of Oxygen, with the atomic number 8. Air also had Nitrogen, with atomic number 7 and some Carbon Dioxide which was made out of Carbon and Oxygen, atomic numbers 6 and 8. Water, became 2 hydrogen atoms, with atomic number 1, and 1 oxygen atom. But there was no element that described fire or earth. Earth was too broad. A big chunk of the periodic table are solids that exist beneath and above the Earth. Saying the word Earth itself would've proven nothing.

     Now, what is an atomic number? Well, an atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom. For example, 1 Hydrogen atom, the most basic element in the world, has 1 proton in the nucleus. Whereas 1 Oganesson atom, the largest known to mankind presently, has 118 protons in the nucleus. It got from 4 elements all the way to 118 elements in a few centuries. There will be another blog post featuring all the elements of the periodic table with their atomic numbers.