chemistry

List of chemical elements

List of chemical elements is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of chemical elements rather than just read about it. In short: 118 chemical elements have been identified and named officially by IUPAC. A chemical element, often simply called an element, is a type of atom which has a specific number of protons in its atomic nucleus (i.e., a specific atomic number, or Z).

Key takeaways

List of chemical elements belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of chemical elements to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of chemical elements from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

118 chemical elements have been identified and named officially by IUPAC. A chemical element, often simply called an element, is a type of atom which has a specific number of protons in its atomic nucleus (i.e., a specific atomic number, or Z). The definitive visualisation of all 118 elements is the periodic table of the elements, whose history along the principles of the periodic law was one of the founding developments of modern chemistry. It is a tabular arrangement of the elements by their chemical properties that usually uses abbreviated chemical symbols in place of full element names, but the linear list format presented here is also useful. Like the periodic table, the list below organizes the elements by the number of protons in their atoms; it can also be organized by other properties, such as atomic weight, density, and electronegativity. For more detailed information about the origins of element names, see List of chemical element name etymologies.

List

See also List of chemical elements named after people List of chemical elements named after places List of chemical element name etymologies Roles of chemical elements Extended periodic table — Periodic table with eight or more periods

References

External links Atoms made thinkable, an interactive visualisation of the elements allowing physical and chemical properties of the elements to be compared

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of chemical elements

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of chemical elements claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of chemical elements before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of chemical elements ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of chemical elements

In research: List of chemical elements appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of chemical elements in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of chemical elements is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of chemical elements, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of chemical elements outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “List of chemical elements” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study List of chemical elements in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of chemical elements means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of chemical elements out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of chemical elements in simple terms?

Why does List of chemical elements matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of chemical elements?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of chemical elements.