CHNOPS's definitions

Copper

The 29th element with the symbol Cu and a beautiful pink-orange hue. Copper is a huge multi-tasker metal, with decorative, industrial, plumbing, electronic, and culinary uses, making it extremely useful in everyday life. Most of its practical applications make use of Copper's availability and conductivity. It is widespread in many countries, and is easily accessible. Copper is also the 2nd most conductive metal. In addition to being common and a great transmitter, it is very soft, allowing it to be bent into many different shapes easily. However, as good as Copper may seem, it is chemically reactive in the air, quickly developing a black tarnish that ruins the orange-y hue that many people love. It is also too soft; requiring the support of other metals for strength. The name "Copper" comes from the Latin "Cuprum", meaning "from the island of Cyprus". The Romans discovered that this metal was abundant on Cyprus, and mined large quantities of it.

Copper is an outstanding metal in terms of uses and applications.

by CHNOPS July 8, 2020

Niobium

The 41st metallic chemical element with the symbol Nb. Niobium is hard, durable, and strong, being very helpful in alloys for jet engines and oil rigs. It is also non-toxic and very pretty when anodized, making it an ideal metal for jewelry and art. It is classified as a semi-precious metal, but with its industrial and decorative uses, it becomes a very precious metal for some. The metal got its name from "Niobe", who was the daughter of Tantalus in Greek Mythology. This is also evident on the periodic table, due to Niobium being situated directly above Tantalum. However, it was originally named "Columbium", and was later changed for obvious reasons.

Niobium is a good example of a multitasker.

by CHNOPS July 8, 2020

Tungsten

The 74th element that is forever linked to its unbelievable strength. Tungsten is everything a metal should be: it's heavy, strong, conductive, alloyable, and shiny. It even forms crystals. Although its tensile strength is the best out of any metal, its impact strength is straight ass. If you were to make a sledgehammer out of Tungsten and hit it against something sturdy, the head of the hammer would blow itself to pieces. Despite this, Tungsten is still widely used for its tensile strength. It is a major component in some steels, offering a huge boost in durability and strength and sending the melting point of the latter into space. Tungsten's name is directly translated into "heavy stone" from Swedish (Tung Sten). Its previous name "Wolfram" comes from the chief ore of Tungsten, Wolframite. This in turn means "the devourer of Tin" in Germanic, due to the fact that Tungsten interferes with the process of smelting Tin.

Tungsten is everything you'd want in a metal, except its glaring weakness.

by CHNOPS July 9, 2020

Francium

Element #87, with the symbol Fr. Francium is the exact opposite of stable, decaying in a matter of nanoseconds. Its most stable isotope, Francium-223, decays in only 22 minutes. It is extremely radioactive, and has no uses besides being a space-filler on the periodic table. One could say that it could be used as a weapon, but the fact that only 30 grams of the stuff can exist on Earth at a time would rule out that suggestion. Single Francium atoms are also fiendishly difficult to synthesize. These factors effectively make Francium forever useless and obsolete. Francium was named after France, where it was discovered in Paris.

Francium has the lifespan of an antivaxxer's child.

by CHNOPS July 9, 2020

Antimony

The 51st semi-metallic element. Antimony has been known since ancient times, as well as its high toxicity. It's an extremely brittle substance that'll form a dust if you crush it, and'll fuck with your lungs if you breathe it. It has its uses in alloys for Type Metal, and compounds for flame-resistance. It's also paired up with Lead for use in electronic goods. The name "Antimony" is formed from the Greek words "Anti" (not) and "Monos" (alone/single), meaning "A metal not found alone". This refers to the fact that it doesn't like being left uncombined, and its ability to form many compounds with other elements to create minerals such as Stibnite (Antimony sulfide), or Dyscrasite (Silver antimonide).

Antimony powder should NOT be snorted, ignoring the fact that it can kill you like many other drugs can.

by CHNOPS July 8, 2020

Neon

The 10th element with the symbol Ne. Neon is one of the most well-known noble gases, largely due to the fact that it is used in Neon signs and lights that pop up on fast-food diners and companies that want customers badly. Despite being the most famous out of all the noble gases, it is quite uncommon in our atmosphere, with Argon - another fellow noble gas - being 23x more abundant than Neon. Like the rest of the other gases in its group, Neon is 100% inert and antisocial, and will not tolerate participating in reactions with other chemicals. It is also monatomic, meaning that it occurs as a single atom, unlike Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and the halogens, which occur as two tightly-bonded atoms due to their high reactivity. Neon derived its name from the Greek "Neos", which meant "new". And at the time of its discovery (1898), an invincible gas that could emit a red glow from excitement would be considered "new".

Person 1: Does Neon make your voice higher?
Person 2: Go look it up.

by CHNOPS July 8, 2020

Selenium

Element #34 with the symbol Se. Selenium usually comes as a smooth, black, glossy solid, like a chunk of sexy chocolate. It can also occur as a red powder, which is much more reactive than the black counterpart. Selenium has many applications in today's world, such as being a key ingredient in vitamin supplements and shampoos, solar cells, photoconductors, batteries, fertilizers, and glass production. One property unique to Selenium is that it is quite sensitive to light. This strange characteristic paved the way for the development of solar panels and other devices that utilise light/electricity. Selenium gets its name from the Greek "Selene", which means "moon". The reason for this is because at the time of its discovery, Selenium was placed directly above Tellurium on the periodic table. And Tellurium's name was derived from the Latin "Tellus", which meant "earth". It made perfect sense to name an element after a celestial body with correlation to another similarly-named element.

Selenium is also used in Manganese Electrolysis.

by CHNOPS July 9, 2020