Geography is Destiny
Summary of Significance:
Geography is Destiny is the first chapter in The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World From the Periodic Tables of Elements by Sam Kean. It explains the periodic table and many of its components. According to Sam the periodic table is an "asymmetric expanse of columns and rows" (11). The periodic table has 18 columns, also referred to as families and 7 horizontal rows also called periods. There are also 2 rows in a separate group on the bottom of the periodic table. Kean compares the structure of the periodic table to a castle made of numerous "bricks" that cannot be changed. Those "bricks" are the elements and if they didn't sit exactly where they are the whole castle would come crumbling down. 75% of the bricks in the castle are metals. A few columns on the eastern side of the castle are gases. Kean also explains the periodic table using the analogy of a map and where Kentucky sits on the US map is a group of hard to define elements. On the west coast there are the alkali metals that are very reactive and east of those are the halogens. The periodic table is made of many different elements with different properties.
Evidence and connection summary:
Back in Ancient Greece, Plato a philosopher came up with the word elements as a general term for different small particles of matter. He also came up with the term Noble Gases. Plato also believed that every being has a companion and longs to its missing half and also emphasized that unchanging things are more noble than things that interact with gross matter. This explained why he loved geometry. In 1911 a Dutch-German scientist was cooling Mercury with liquid helium when he discovered that bellow -452 degrees Fahrenheit it becomes an ideal conductor. A Russian-Canadian team had a similar discovery with helium in 1937. When cooled down to -456 degrees Fahrenheit helium turns into a superfluid which defies gravity and flows uphill and over walls. At the time, these were two dramatic and important discoveries. It took scientists 2,000 years to grasp what elements really are from Greece in 400 BC to Europe in 1800 AD. Plato's theory of Symposium of every thing needed its other half is still used today to explain why different chemicals react and bond because they are sharing electrons. Each level in an atom needs a certain number of electrons to fill itself and feel satisfied. Atoms that don't have enough electrons in the outer level will fight, barter, beg make and break alliances, or do whatever they must to get the right number. There are some elements though that have exactly the number of electrons they need like helium, that has a closed configuration. Elements with closed configurations don't react with anything under normal conditions. Whenever atoms swap electrons to break or form new bonds, chemist say they've reacted.
Evidence and connection summary:
Back in Ancient Greece, Plato a philosopher came up with the word elements as a general term for different small particles of matter. He also came up with the term Noble Gases. Plato also believed that every being has a companion and longs to its missing half and also emphasized that unchanging things are more noble than things that interact with gross matter. This explained why he loved geometry. In 1911 a Dutch-German scientist was cooling Mercury with liquid helium when he discovered that bellow -452 degrees Fahrenheit it becomes an ideal conductor. A Russian-Canadian team had a similar discovery with helium in 1937. When cooled down to -456 degrees Fahrenheit helium turns into a superfluid which defies gravity and flows uphill and over walls. At the time, these were two dramatic and important discoveries. It took scientists 2,000 years to grasp what elements really are from Greece in 400 BC to Europe in 1800 AD. Plato's theory of Symposium of every thing needed its other half is still used today to explain why different chemicals react and bond because they are sharing electrons. Each level in an atom needs a certain number of electrons to fill itself and feel satisfied. Atoms that don't have enough electrons in the outer level will fight, barter, beg make and break alliances, or do whatever they must to get the right number. There are some elements though that have exactly the number of electrons they need like helium, that has a closed configuration. Elements with closed configurations don't react with anything under normal conditions. Whenever atoms swap electrons to break or form new bonds, chemist say they've reacted.