Saturday 15 September 2012

The Basics of Chemistry-Non Metals

Any element which is not a good conductor of heat and electricity is called a non-metal.The exceptions are Diamond which is a good conductor of heat and Graphite which is a good conductor of electricity.Some examples of non-metals are Oxygen,Hydrogen,Nitrogen,Carbon,Sulphur,Bromine,etc.We saw in the last post about a few characteristics of metals.Now let us see if they apply to non metals.Before you continue reading,make sure you read my last post on metals.

Physical form
Nearly all non-metals are solids or gases at room temperature with the exception of Bromine,which is a brown coloured liquid at room temperature.
Lustre
Unlike metals,most non-metals are not lustrous with the exception of graphite and iodine which do show some lustre.

Colour
Some non-metals show colour while some are colourless.For example,Oxygen and Nitrogen are colourless gases while Sulphur is a yellow element.

Hardness
Non-metals are usually soft.The exception is Diamond which is the hardest substance known.

Malleability
Non-metals are brittle and cannot be beaten into sheets or foils.

Ductility
Non-metals are brittle and cannot be beaten into sheets or foils.

Thermal Conductivity
Most non-metals are not good conductors of heat.The exception is diamond.

Electrical Conductivity
Most non-metals are not good conductors of electricity with the exception of graphite.Graphite is a good conductor of electricity.

Sonority
Non-metals are brittle and do not produce a loud sound when struck with a hard object.

This concludes my talk on non-metals.




Friday 14 September 2012

Basics of Chemistry-Metals

As we discussed earlier,elements can be further classified into two categories-
Metals and Non-Metals
Metals
Metals can be defined as-Any element which is a good conductor of heat and electricity.

Metals also have other properties-

Physical property
Most metals are found in solid form in nature.The only liquid metals at room temperature are Mercury,Gallium,Caesium,Francium,Rubidium.

Lustre
 Metals usually give a shine when polished.This is called lustre.

Colour
Most metals are white or silvery grey in colour.Exceptions are Gold which is yellow in colour and Copper is reddish-brown in colour.

Hardness
Most metals are hard with the exceptions of Potassium and Sodium that are so soft that they can be cut with a knife.

Malleability
Most metals can be beaten into thin sheets or foils.The property by virtue of which metals can be beaten into thin sheets or foils is called malleability.For example,aluminium can be beaten into foils.

Ductility
The property by virtue of which metals can be drawn into thin wires is called ductility.Due to this property,metals can be stretched into wires.For ex: Copper wires.Gold and silver are the two most ductile metals.

Thermal Conductivity
Most metals are good conductors of heat.This property is known as thermal conductivity.Due to this property,heating vessels and pans are made from metals.
Electrical conductivity
Metals are good conductors of electricity.This property is known as Electrical conductivity.Due to this property,wires are made from metals.

Sonority
Most metals produce loud sounds when struck with a hard object.The property by virtue of which metals produce a loud sound when struck with a hard object is called Sonority.This property is used in Bells,Wind chimes etc.

This concludes my talk on metals.

Basics of Chemistry-Elements

Hello!Today I'm gonna talk about the most basic substances in chemistry that are...
Elements
An Element can be defined as - Any substance that has only one type of atom and cannot be broken down into a simpler form.
Some common examples of elements are gold,silver,sulphur,iron,iodine,etc.
Elements can further be classified into-
Metals and Non-metals
Metals can be defined as Any element that is a good conductor of heat and electricity is known as a metal 
Most non-metals however are not good conductors if heat and electricity.Exceptions are Diamond which is a good conductor of heat and Graphite which is a good conductor of electricity.

An introduction

Hello!!!This is a blog to help make everyone understand the basics of science!This blog will help you understand things you never really could.I will post regularly on Physics,chemistry and biology and will change the topic every week.Have fun with science!!