Atomic Number 8 Element Facts

Atomic Number 8 Element Facts Oxygen, element symbol O, is the element that is atomic number 8 on the periodic table. This means every atom of oxygen has 8 protons. Varying the number of electrons forms ions, while altering the number of neutrons makes different isotopes of the element, but the number of protons remains constant. Here is a collection of interesting facts about atomic number 8. Atomic Number 8 Element Facts While oxygen is a colorless gas under ordinary conditions, element 8 is actually quite colorful! Liquid oxygen is blue, while the solid element may be blue, pink, orange, red, black, or even metallic.Oxygen is a nonmetal belonging to the chalcogen group. It is highly reactive and readily forms compounds with other elements. It is found as a pure element in nature as oxygen gas (O2) and ozone (O3). Tetraoxygen (O4) was discovered in 2001. Tetraoxygen is an even more potent oxidizer than dioxygen or trioxygen.Excited oxygen atoms produce the green and red colors of the aurora. Although air consists mainly of nitrogen, atomic number 8 is responsible for most of the colors that we see.Today, oxygen makes up about 21% of the Earths atmosphere. However, air was not always so highly oxygenated! A 2007 NASA-funded study determined oxygen has been present in air for about 2.3 billion to 2.4 billion years, with levels starting to rise 2.5 billion years ago. Photosynthetic organisms, such as pl ants and algae, are responsible for maintaining the high oxygen levels necessary for life. Without photosynthesis, oxygen levels in the atmosphere would fall. Although hydrogen atoms are the most numerous type of atom in the human body, oxygen accounts for about two-thirds of the mass of most living organisms, mainly because cells contain a lot of water. 88.9% of the weight of water comes from oxygen.Swedish pharmacist Carl Wilhelm Scheele, French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, and British scientists and clergyman Joseph Priestly researched and discovered oxygen between 1770 and 1780. Lavoisier first called element number 8 by the name oxygen in 1777.Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe. The element is made by stars around 5x more massive than the Sun when they reach the point where they burn carbon or a combination of helium in carbon in fusion reactions. Over time, the abundance of oxygen in the universe will increase.Until 1961, atomic number 8 was the standard for the atomic weight of the chemical elements. In 1961, the standard was switched over to carbon-12.Its a common misconception that hyperventilation is caused by breathing in too much oxygen. Actually, hyperventilating is caused by exhaling too much carbon dioxide. Although carbon dioxide can be toxic at high levels, its needed in the blood to prevent it from becoming too alkaline. Breathing too quickly causes blood pH to rise, which constricts blood vessels in the brain, leading to headache, slurred speech, dizziness, and other symptoms. Oxygen has many uses. It is used for oxygen therapy and life support systems. It is a common oxidizer and propellant for rockets, welding, cutting, and brazing. Oxygen is used in internal combustion engines. Ozone functions as a natural planetary radiation shield.Pure oxygen is not, in fact, flammable. It is an oxidizer, supporting combustion of flammable materials.Oxygen is paramagnetic. In order words, oxygen is only weakly attracted to a magnet and does not maintain permanent magnetism.Cold water can hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water. The polar oceans contain more dissolved oxygen than equatorial or mid-latitude oceans. Essential Element 8 Information Element Symbol: O State of Matter at Room Temperature: Gas Atomic Weight: 15.9994 Density: 0.001429 grams per cubic centimeter Isotopes: At least 11 isotopes of oxygen exist. 3 are stable. Most Common Isotope: Oxygen-16 (accounts for 99.757% of the natural abundance) Melting Point: -218.79  °C Boiling Point: -182.95  °C Triple Point:  54.361  K, ​0.1463  kPa Oxidation States: 2, 1, -1, 2 Electronegativity: 3.44 (Pauling scale) Ionization Energies: 1st:  1313.9  kJ/mol, 2nd:  3388.3  kJ/mol, 3rd:  5300.5  kJ/mol Covalent Radius: 66 /- 2 pm Van der Waals Radius: 152 pm Crystal Structure: Cubic Magnetic Ordering: Paramagnetic Discovery: Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1771) Named By: Antoine Lavoisier (1777) Further Reading Cacace, Fulvio; de Petris, Giulia; Troiani, Anna (2001). Experimental Detection of Tetraoxygen. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 40 (21): 4062–65.Greenwood, Norman N.; Earnshaw, Alan (1997). Chemistry of the Elements (2nd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.Weast, Robert (1984).  CRC, Handbook of Chemistry and Physics. Boca Raton, Florida: Chemical Rubber Company Publishing.

Brainstorms, Turning to Showers

Brainstorms, Turning to Showers Brainstorms, Turning to Showers Brainstorms, Turning to Showers By Maeve Maddox Until recently I associated only two meanings with the word brainstorm: 1. noun: a brilliant idea. Ex. Hey, guys, I just had a brainstorm! Lets go to the movies. 2, verb: to generate a lot of ideas in a short time. Ex. Before deciding on an essay topic, take the time to brainstorm. According the the Wikipedia, brainstorming is a group creativity technique designed to generate a large number of ideas for the solution of a problem. The method was first popularized in the late 1930s by Alex Faickney Osborn in a book called Applied Imagination. Osborn proposed that groups could double their creative output with brainstorming. Heres what it says in the OED brain-storm, (a) ‘a succession of sudden and severe phenomena, due to some cerebral disturbance’ (Gould 1894); (b) U.S. colloq. = brain-wave (c); (c) U.S., a concerted ‘attack’ on a problem, usu. by amassing a number of spontaneous ideas which are then discussed; also attrib.; so as v., to make such an attack; hence brain-storming vbl. n. and ppl. Apparently some sensitive civil servants in Britain think the expression brainstorm is potentially offensive to people who have epilepsy or some other medical condition that affects the brain. They recommend that we adopt some other figure of speech, such as word storm, thought shower or ideas shower. . . .staff at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) in Belfast will use the term thought-showers when they get together to think creatively. A spokeswoman said: The DETI does not use the term brainstorming on its training courses on the grounds that it may be deemed pejorative. The Guardian A spokesman for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council in Kent said: We take diversity awareness very seriously. The majority of staff have taken part in training and been asked to use the term thought showers. The Telegraph It seems that people who actually have the condition of epilepsy arent much bothered by the popular use of brainstorm to mean to generate ideas. The Epilepsy Foundation of Los Angeles named a recent conference The Epilepsy Brainstorm Summit. Gemma Baxter from the National Society for Epilepsy in the U.K. said her organization contacted people with epilepsy in the community and the overwhelming response was that brainstorming implies no offence to people with epilepsy, and that any implication that the word is offensive to people with the condition is taking political correctness too far. quoted in Free Republic Tricia Ward and Sam Delaney have something to say about this well-meaning pre-emptive effort of the language police to spare the feelings of people whose feelings are unknown to them: Tricia Ward Sam Delaney (Update: Article no longer online) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Synonyms for â€Å"Leader†50 Diminutive Suffixes (and a Cute Little Prefix)Apostrophe with Plural Possessive Nouns