Project in

Science
(Individual Task)

Element Rules

Submitted by: Hans Emmanuel A. Federis

Submitted to: Ms. Mayoliza Mendez

Name of an Element: Neon

Symbol: Ne
Atomic Number: 10
Room Temperature: Gas
Melting Point: -249C
Boiling Point: -246C
Location on the Periodic Table: 18 (group),
2 (period)
Chemical Properties and Appearance:
A colourless, odourless gas and will not react
to other substance.
Biological Role and Natural Abundance:
It has no known biological role and is nontoxic. Neon is the fifth most abundant element
in the universe. It is present in the Earths
atmosphere. It is extracted by fractional
distillation of liquid air. This gives a fraction
that contains both helium and neon. The
helium is removed from the mixture with
activated charcoal.
Uses: The largest use of neon is in making the
ubiquitous neon signs for advertising. It is
also used to make high-voltage indicators and

switching gears, lightning arresters, diving

equipment, and lasers. Liquid neon is also an
important cryogenic refrigerant.
Brief and History: Over the last 150 years the
luminous tube industry has evolved from the
simple laboratory experiments in the second
half of the 19th century to an industry of
world wide proportions. The first luminous
tubes did not use neon or any other rare gas.
In the late 1800s scientist developed reliable
and somewhat safe high voltage supplies and
began running high voltages through many
things to observe what would happen. Often,
they tested to see how wide of an air gap the
spark could jump. It was quickly observed that
the spark gap was inversely proportional to
the pressure of the air and it soon became
apparent, that an evacuated glass tube was
the ideal method for viewing light from gas
discharges.
When British reseacher William Ramsey
discovered the 5 rare gases between 1894-98,
receiving the Noble Prize in 1904, it became

possible for a French scientist, Georges

Claude, to note that noble gases could be
made to produce light discharges when
electrical discharges were passed through
them. This was the long desired method that
scientists had been looking for, a form of
practical lighting by glowworm or
phosphorescent light, Light without heat.
By World War l, Claude had acquired many
patents, but he had more on his mind than
strictly scientific knowledge. He envisioned a
lucrative market for his tubes in lighting and
signage. Because neon gas produced the
brightest light, it was used almost exclusively,
and soon the generic Neon Sign, was born.
By 1924, Claude Neon franchises appeared
in 14 major cities across the United States.
And in 1927, out of a total of 750 neon signs
in New York City, 611 had been made by
Claude Neon Lights, Inc.
Curious Fact: The gas that makes Las Vegas
shine is one of the nobles the noble gases,
that is. Neon is one of six elements, found in

the rightmost column of the Periodic Table,

that are inert. Noble gases react very
unwillingly, because the outermost shell of
electrons orbiting the nucleus is full, giving
these gases no incentive to swap electrons
with other elements. As a result, there are
very few compounds made with noble gases

Name of an Element: Sodium

Symbol: Na
Atomic
Number: 11
Room
Temperature: Solid
Melting
Point: 98C
Boiling Point: 883C
Location on the Periodic Table: 1 (group), 3
(period)
Chemical Properties and Appearance:

Sodium is a soft metal that tarnishes within

seconds of being exposed to the air. It also
reacts vigorously with water.
Uses:
Sodium is used as a heat exchanger in some
nuclear reactors, and as a reagent in the
chemicals industry. But sodium salts have
more uses than the metal itself.
The most common compound of sodium is
sodium chloride (common salt). It is added to
food and used to de-ice roads in winter. It is
also used as a feedstock for the chemical
industry.
Sodium carbonate (washing soda) is also a
useful sodium salt. It is used as a water
softener.
Biological Role and Natural Abundance:
Sodium is essential to all living things, and
humans have known this since prehistoric
times. Our bodies contain about 100 grams,
but we are constantly losing sodium in

different ways so we need to replace it. We

can get all the sodium we need from our food,
without adding any extra. The average person
eats about 10 grams of salt a day, but all we
really need is about 3 grams. Any extra
sodium may contribute to high blood
pressure. Sodium is important for many
different functions of the human body. For
example, it helps cells to transmit nerve
signals and regulate water levels in tissues
and blood.
Sodium is the sixth most common element on
Earth, and makes up 2.6% of the Earths
crust. The most common compound is sodium
chloride. This very soluble salt has been
leached into the oceans over the lifetime of
the planet, but many salt beds or lakes are
found where ancient seas have evaporated. It
is also found in many minerals including
cryolite, zeolite and sodalite. Because sodium
is so reactive it is never found as the metal in
nature. Sodium metal is produced by
electrolysis of dry molten sodium chloride.
History and Discovery:

Salt (sodium chloride, NaCl) and soda (sodium

carbonate, Na2CO3) had been known since
prehistoric times, the former used as a
flavouring and preservative, and the latter for
glass manufacture. Salt came from seawater,
while soda came from the Natron Valley in
Egypt or from the ash of certain plants. Their
composition was debated by early chemists
and the solution finally came from the Royal
Institution in London in October 1807 where
Humphry Davy exposed caustic soda (sodium
hydroxide, NaOH) to an electric current and
obtained globules of sodium metal, just as he
had previously done for potassium, although
he needed to use a stronger current.
The following year, Louis-Josef Gay-Lussac
and Louis-Jacques Thnard obtained sodium
by heating to red heat a mixture of caustic
soda and iron filings.
A Curious Fact:
When mixed with water, sodium reacts
spectacularly. The combination produces
sodium hydroxide, hydrogen gas and heat
(the technical term for these heat-creating

reactions is an exothermic). The heat is so

intense that it ignites the hydrogen gas,
creating an impressive explosion. Scientists
have even caught this reaction on high-speed
video, capturing the blast and explaining why
the reaction happens so quickly. It turns out
that when the water and sodium first
combine, the sodium releases electrons
negatively charged particles leaving the
element in a positively charged state, the
researchers reported in the journal Nature
Chemistry in January 2015. All those positive
charges repel each other, tearing the sodium
apart and creating more surface area for an
even bigger reaction: ka-boom.

Name of an Element:
Magnesium
Symbol: Mg
Atomic Number: 12
Room Temperature: Solid
Melting Point: 639
Boiling Point: 1090
Location on the Periodic Table: 2 (group), 3
(Period)
Chemical Properties and Appearance:
Magnesium powder is an explosive hazard.
The bright white light plus ultraviolet from
burning magnesiumcan cause permanent
eye damage. Characteristics:Magnesium is a
silvery-white, low density, reasonably strong

metal that tarnishes in air to form a thin oxide

coating.
Uses and Applications:
The brilliant light it produces when ignited is
made use of in photography, flares,
pyrotechnics and incendiary bombs.
With a density of only two-thirds that of
aluminum, and just over one-fifth that of iron,
magnesium alloys are used in aircraft, car
engine casings, and missile construction.
The metal is widely used in the manufacturing
of mobile phones, laptop computers, cameras,
and other electronic components.
Organic magnesium compounds (Grignard
reagents) are important in the synthesis of
organic molecules.
Magnesium compounds such as the hydroxide
(milk of magnesia, Mg(OH2)), sulfate (Epsom
salts), chloride and citrate are used for

medicinal purposes.
Magnesium is the second most important
intracellular cation and is involved in a variety
of metabolic processes including glucose
metabolism, ion channel translocation,
stimulus-contraction coupling, stimulus
secretion coupling, peptide hormone receptor
signal transduction.
Biological Role and Natural Abundance:
The comparatively limited radius of its ions,
the stability and relative insolubility of its
compounds prevent its taking an active part
in the reactions of living matter. On the other
hand, we have the statement of Vernadskii
that in the plankton film of the ocean, in the
ordinary accumulations and more massive
growths, the amount of magnesiumcontaining chlorophyll must reach the order of
10-4 per cent by weight, if not higher, so that a
small quantity of magnesium, entering into
the composition of the chlorophyll-complex of
the plankton, ultimately regulates the main

part of the oxygenating function of living

matter, the creation of free atmospheric
oxygen. The material summarized by us
likewise affords evidence of the importance of
the role of magnesium in biological processes.
History and Discovery:
In 1618 a farmer by the name of Henry
Wicker at Epsom in England attempted to
give his cows water from a well. They refused
to drink because bitter taste of the water.
However the farmer noticed that the water
seemed to heal scratches and rashes. The
fame of Epsom salts spread. Eventually it was
recognized to be magnesium sulphate,
MgSO4.
Joseph Black recognized magnesium as an
element in 1755. It was isolated by Sir
Humphry Davy (1778-1829) in 1808 almost
200 years after its discovery. He
electrolysised mixture of magnesia
(magnesium oxide, MgO) and mercuric oxide
(HgO). Davy's first suggestion for a name was
magnium but the name magnesium is now
used.

Michael Faraday produced magnesium metal

by electrolysis of fused anhydrous magnesium
chloride in 1833. The commercial production
of magnesium by electrolysis is credited to
Robert Bunsen who in 1852 made a small
laboratory cell for the electrolysis of fused
magnesium chloride, Bunsens modificated
cell was used in The Aluminium and
Magnesium Fabrik in Hemelingen in Germany
for the first commercial magnesium
production. They designed and built a new
plant for dehydration and electrolysis of
molten carnalite.
In 1896 was this process further developed bij
Griesheim-Elektron Chemische Fabrik who
transferred the process to its Bitterfield Works
and became the only magnesium producing
facility in the world until 1916 and then
became part of I.G. Farbenindustrie.
Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon was an Canadian
scientist who was head ad the Department of
Metallurgy at the university of Toronto. He
developed the magnesium process that bears
his name and also new electrolytic
processes.

The name magnesium comes from Magnesia,

a district of Thessaly/Greece were it was first
found and to this present day a lot of
magnesium ore is present in the area.
A Curious Fact:
The metal can be mixed with other metals,
particularly aluminum, for use in making car bodies,
drink cans and other items that need to be light and
strong. Magnesium is flammable, so one of its main
uses is for flares and fireworks. During World War II,
the element was even used to make incendiary
bombs.
Getting enough magnesium may help keep blood
pressure under control, a new meta-analysis of
previous research finds.
People in studies who took magnesium supplements
had lower blood pressure after three months
compared with people who did not take magnesium
supplements, according to the analysis, published
today (July 11) in the journal Hypertension.
"With its relative safety and low cost, magnesium
supplements could be considered as an option for
lowering blood pressure in high-risk persons or
hypertension patients," lead author Dr. Yiqing Song,

an associate professor of epidemiology at Indiana

University, said in a statement.