Back to Chemistry

Everything on Earth is made up of elements. There are over 100 elements that scientists have discovered or made in laboratories.

IT'S ELEMENTARY

An element is the simplest piece of anything on Earth. When you see anything, it is made up of elements. Think of the letters in the alphabet. You could not write any words without letters. In the same way, you can't make anything without elements. Elements are the letters and the words are the same as compounds. One piece of an element is called an atom.

PERIODIC TABLE BASICS
When scientists organized the elements, they created something called the periodic table. Each element was given a symbol, a one or two letter abbreviation for the element.

As you can see, the periodic table is organized like a big grid. The ELEMENTS are placed in specific places because of the way they look and act. If you have ever looked at a grid, you know that there are rows (left to right) and columns (up and down). The periodic table has rows and columns too, and they each mean something different.

When you look at a periodic table, each of the rows are considered to be different PERIODS (Get it? Like PERIODic table!). In the periodic table, elements have something in common if they are in the same row, they have the same number of SHELLS. So, every element in the top row (the first period) has one shell for its electrons. All of the elements in the second row (the second period) have two shells for their electrons. It goes down the periodic table like that.

The periodic table has a special name for its columns too. When a column goes from top to bottom, its called a GROUP. The elements in a group have the same number of electrons in their outer shell. So, every element in the first column (group one) has one electron is its outer shell. Every element on the second column (group two) has two electrons in the outer shell. Just keep counting the colored columns and you will know how many electrons are in the outer shell.

The elements in the grey area are called TRANSITION ELEMENTS.

SYMBOL INFORMATION
There is specific information associated with each element. This information tells you about one atom of the element.

There is a square with three values in it. The upper left has Atomic Number, the center has Element Symbol, and the lower right has Atomic Mass Value. The atomic number equals number of protons and also the number of electrons in a neutral atom. Atomic Mass Value equals the mass of the entire atom.