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WorksheetsHunting the Elements Part 1
Total questions: 64
Worksheet time: 33mins
What was David Pogue's quest?
To understand the basic building blocks of everyday matter
To collect a sample of every available element
To see a gold mine for the first time
According to David, how are the 118 unique substances arranged?
By atomic mass
In stacks, in a vault
On an amazing chart
According to David, what was one of humanity's first elemental loves?
Hydrogen
Gold
Uranium
How are neutrons different from protons and electrons?
Positive charge
Negative charge
No charge
All of the gold ever mined would...
entirely fill the Great Pyramid
collapse under its own weight
fit into a single cube, about 60' on a side
Why is gold unique among the metals?
It doesn't rust or tarnish
It is not very common
It is very reactive
The gold in the Cortez Mine is...
found as big nuggets
mixed with quartz & silver
microscopic
What 500-year-old process did Gayle Fitzwater and her team perform using a furnace?
A fire assay
The lost wax method
A sand cast
According to Gayle, about how much gold is found in 1 ton of rock?
1/2 mg
1 oz.
1 kg
As a group, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, osmium, and iridium are...
the "noble metals"
the metals of civilization
very reactive
According to David, 40,000 gallons of sludge will result in how many bars of gold?
A bar-and-a-half
3 bars
Enough to fill a cube, 60' on a side
____ Each "deceptively" heavy gold bar weighs ____, and has a value of about $1.5 million.
about 60 lbs.
2.7 kg
805 g
____ Each bar also represents how many lbs. of rock that had to be moved and processed?
1 million
10 million
100 million
When did the ancients first learn how to heat rocks to extract copper?
7,000 yrs.
5,000 yrs.
3,200 yrs.
At the New York Mercantile Exchange, a vital hub in the global metals market, what is bought and sold?
Scrap copper
Copper & bronze artifacts
Copper "futures"
According to Harriet Hunnable, why is copper king?
It is valuable
It is used for "everything"
It is malleable, & a good conductor
According to David, when times are bad, copper prices tumble, when good, they...
soar
climb
rise
According to David, why has copper been prized for millennia?
It is attractive & creates verdigris
It conducts electricity, is malleable, & has a moderate melting temperature
It forges strong implements
Which element, added in small amounts to copper, makes bronze?
Gold
Tin
Zinc
____ Bronze, the first man-made metal alloy, helped to create global trade, and once forged into tools and weapons, played a defining role in...
A) peacemaking efforts
B) alchemy
C) the empires of antiquity
Why does the Verdin Company of Cincinnati still choose bronze for casting bells?
It doesn’t rust
No modern materials are available
The sound, the lasting ring
Which feature of metals allows conductivity and flexible metallic bonds?
Hardness & resistance
A “sea” of randomly moving electrons
Atoms arranged in orderly rows & columns
Why aren’t Verdin Co. bells made just out of copper?
The bells would be too expensive
The bell would be too soft, & wouldn’t give off the desired sound
Tradition demands bronze, not copper
Although no one is certain why the Liberty Bell cracked, what did a chemical analysis indicate?
There was too much tin
The arrangement of atoms
Aluminum was used in the bell
What is the proper temperature for pouring bronze?
450° F
1,984° F
2,200° F
According to David, bells can fail because bronze remains…
resonant
unpredictable
inflexible
To understand the scale of the microscope, imagine floating in space 2,000 mi above the earth looking down at the United States. Zooming in 100 million times would allow you to pick out not just a car, but…
an alien surface
a bug crawling in the grass next to it
a little sign saying “Welcome to Whoville”
What does the bronze reveal under the microscope?
Molecules
Sediments
Grains
How did scientists discover that metals are crystals with an orderly arrangement of atoms?
Super-sensitive assays
Immersion in liquid metal mercury
By bombarding with x-rays
To David, what was “amazing” about the microscope?
It was able to show actual atoms
It filled a room
It was super-sensitive to vibrations
According to David, Muller’s lab has successfully captured other atoms in gold, computer chips, oxygen, powerful magnets, and even…
hydrogen
glass
graphite
The interior of an atom is ____ times smaller than the outer boundary.
2,000
10,000
100 million
If a hydrogen atom were enlarged to be 2 mi wide, what size would the single proton in its nucleus be?
About the size of a city block
About the size of a stadium
About the size of a golf ball
The number of ____ determines what element an atom is.
protons
electrons
neutrons
How is author Theo Gray’s version of the periodic table unique?
It has 118 elements
It’s a periodic “table table”
It is made of elements
What is Au, the symbol for gold, based on?
The gold tint of the aurora
Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar
The Latin name aurum
How much of the table are metals?
30%
70%
100%
Match each element to its familiar form: Calcium, Bismuth, Bromine, Uranium
Bone
Calcium
Orange Fiesta ware
Uranium
Soda
Bromine
Stomach medicine
Bismuth
From about 90 elements, nature and humans have derived millions of substances.
True
False
Mendeleev distinguished elements by...
atomic number
atomic weight
property
When 19th century scientists labeled oxygen as 16, what were they comparing it to?
Hydrogen
Elements of similar properties
Other even numbered substances
Mendeleev also arranged elements by...
atomic number
atomic weight
family
Match the elements with their descriptions:
Lithium, sodium potassium
Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen
Oxygen, Fluorine
Nickle, iron, zinc, gold
React with water
Calcium, magnesium
What did the gaps in Mendeleev’s chart represent?
Areas inaccessible to laboratory techniques
Extremely radioactive substances of short half-lives
Bold predictions of elements yet to be discovered
Which group, discovered after Mendeleev’s death, fits neatly onto the end of the table?
Alkali earth metals
Semiconductors
Noble gases
What sets gases such as argon and neon apart from other elements?
They are unwilling to mix or react with other elements
They can be used to make signs
They are difficult to store in a container
In the noble gases, how are these shells unique?
They need just 1 more electron to be full
All the shells are completely filled
The electrons are in random orbits
Elements in the column just before the noble gases, called the halogens, have an outer shell that needs...
to lose an electron
just 1 more electron
more attention
How was chlorine gas used in World War I?
As a deadly poison
As an agent to purify water
As an artificial fertilizer
According to Theo, chlorine will steal an electron off of the water in your lungs and turn it into...
effluvia
edema
hydrochloric acid
How are electrons positioned in the alkali metals, the first column of the periodic table (and which includes lithium, sodium, and potassium)?
They need just 1 more electron to be full
All the shells are completely filled
They have full shells, plus 1 extra electron in a new outer shell
Which soft, silvery metal can be sliced like cheese?
Aluminum
Sodium
Natron
Sodium plus another lethal element, chlorine, creates which crystal compound that we can’t live without?
Table salt
Baking soda
Sucrose
What crucial insight did David get from Theo’s backyard reactions?
How elements form compounds is all about electrons
Proper safety gear must be used when working with dangerous elements
A mad scientist must have a remote lair
Which “notorious electron hound” has only 6 electrons in its outer shell?
Nitrogen
Chlorine
Oxygen
What is Tim Collister’s job at the EMRTC?
Blow stuff up for fun
Demonstrate the explosive capability of common elements
Train law enforcement & fire professionals in how to deal with dangerous weapons
What is one of the most powerful off-the-shelf explosives?
ANFO
C-4
CHNOPS
What is the most notorious “fertilizer bomb” ever detonated?
World Trade Center
Oklahoma City
Tavistock Square
What does Christa Hockensmith use to do “good work” finding out what causes explosions?
Spectrograph
De-ionized water
“Magic swabs”
Christa and David found that “oxygen was at work” in which molecules from the car explosion?
Carbonates
Nitrates
Ammoniac
A candle flame, rust, and food burning in our cells are examples of which type of reaction, with the only difference being speed?
Combustion
Ignition
Incineration
What is a “relatively slow” explosive?
A) Gunpowder
B) Ammonium nitrate
C) C-4
Which type of explosive is C-4?
Relatively slow
Military-grade high explosive
High explosive
At 21% of the earth’s atmosphere, oxygen is also the most abundant element in…
outer space nebulae
the oceans
the earth’s crust
