Does the Periodic Table Evolve ?

Discussion in 'Chemistry' started by river, Jan 19, 2021.

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  1. river

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    Not elements created by us .

    Does Hydrogen , Oxygen , any element evolve , change so much that the definition of the element then changes .
     
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  3. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    No.
     
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  5. river

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    Then the Periodic Table is Stable .
     
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  7. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    No. Some minor changes (like average atomic weight) might occur as we change our estimates of isotope ratios, and new elements are added as they are discovered. But oxygen isn't going to change atomic number tomorrow.
     
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  8. river

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    Then the Periodic Table is Stable , as it is .
     
  9. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    How long is the life span of an atom?
    https://education.jlab.org/qa/radelement_03.html#
     
  10. Write4U Valued Senior Member

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    But this is an interesting question.

    Carbon-14 dating
    Alternative Title: radiocarbon dating
    https://www.britannica.com/science/carbon-14-dating

    Now there is a great mystery!
    https://education.jlab.org/qa/radelement_03.html#
     
    Last edited: Jan 23, 2021
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  11. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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  12. Janus58 Valued Senior Member

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    As all ready pointed out. that was answered in the first paragraph. C14 is formed in the atmosphere by this process. The atmospheric C14 finds its way into living organisms ( plants take in CO2, animals eat plants...)
    Once a plant or animal dies, it quits taking in new carbon. New C14 is no longer added, and the existing C14 decays.
    As a result, carbon dating is only useful for dating things that contain materials that was organic and once part of a living organism, and it tells us when it was last a part of something living. Human remains is one example. Pottery, for instance, can be dated by animal fat residues left behind.
    Radiocarbon dating becomes unreliable for anything older than 30,000 yrs. For older object, other types of dating is used (Uranium-Thorium dating can work up to 500,000 yrs and Uranium-Lead dating can date rocks up to 4.5 billion years old)
     
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  13. Beaconator Valued Senior Member

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    How could we take the most stable elements we can think of and make anything unstable? Just a question. Not really.
     
  14. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Neutron activation.
     
  15. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    There was a TV show where the characters would travel through "wormholes" to "alternate universes". In one of those alternate universes, they noticed that there were no aircraft and the proposed explanation was that "maybe they don't have aluminum in their periodic table."

    If you understand what a periodic table is, maybe you can understand where their thinking went wrong.
     
  16. Beaconator Valued Senior Member

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    I guess your right, but I was referring to taking already stable elements and mixing them to make a stable product.
     
  17. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    When you say "mixing", do you mean reacting them chemically, to produce a compound from them, or something else?
     
  18. Beaconator Valued Senior Member

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    To produce a compound from them
     
  19. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    Well you can react two stable elements to make a stable compound. How about reacting Fe and S to form FeS, for example?

    (And don't forget "stability" has both a thermodynamic and a kinetic aspect

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  20. Beaconator Valued Senior Member

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    What is the largest compound containing the most different elements?
     
  21. exchemist Valued Senior Member

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    I'm not wasting my time on pointless silly questions.
     
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  22. Beaconator Valued Senior Member

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    So you don’t know the answer off the top of your head?!?! I’m disinclined to tell you that organic chemistry holds the answer
     
  23. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    A planet.
     
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