Posted
on January 23, 2015
I'm
not talking about a rock band that has had loads of platinum records
(like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones).
Instead,
I'm talking about a group of metals that hang out together on the
periodic table. These metals are dense and generally inert to most
chemicals. That means that they don't easily react with other
substances.
This
makes these metals highly resistant to wear and tarnish. Chemicals,
hot temperatures, electricity—these metals tend to be quite stable
no matter what we throw at them. All of these characteristics make
the platinum group metals useful to humans!
Today's
birthday boy (born on this date in 1796) was a chemist who discovered
the last of the platinum group metals. He was Russian, and he named
his discovery Ruthenium, which basically was a way of honoring his
homeland.
By
the way, Karl's name is sometimes seen as Karl Klaus and Carl Claus.
If you are wondering what the REAL spelling is...well, he was
Russian, so here it is: Карл
Ка́рлович Кла́ус.
Ruthenium's
chemical symbol is Ru, and its atomic number is 44. That means that
there are 44 protons in each and every atom of ruthenium...and 44
electrons in non-ionized atoms, as well.
The atomic mass is an
average. The periodic table give ruthenium's atomic mass as 101.07,
so most ruthenium atoms must have 57 neutrons. Some isotopes have
from 53 to 58 neutrons.
(Isotopes
are forms of an element that have different numbers of neutrons in
their nuclei. They are the same in their chemical properties, but
different in weight or mass.)
 |
| Ru, Rh, Pd, Os, Ir, Pt are the platinum group. They are ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum. They make a square in the middle of yellow "transition metals." |
To
learn more about elements and the Periodic Table,
check out this earlier post
(scroll down to find links to the Element Song), or this earlier post
(scroll down to the cool Interactive Periodic Table of Elements), or this earlier post
(with an even better, even more interactive, Periodic Table).
Also
on this date:
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ahead:
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out my Pinterest pages on:
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