Learning...

I used to hate school and didn't put much effort into learning. I've reached a point now where I feel I missed out on a lot because of that, so im planning to relearn a lot of things. I want to focus on science for now, but I'm going to branch out too. Will post things I've learned about each day and sometimes object show fanart or just oc art.

In the coming days I’ll briefly be going over atomic spectra! But first I’ll mention electrons and energy levels!

So I’ve already covered that atoms can be imagined as a nucleus(of protons and neutrons) surrounded by different levels of electron shells(containing electrons of course). These shells can hold increasing energy levels the farther away they are from the nucleus.

Electrons are able to jump between these energy levels by either gaining or releasing energy.

When an electron jumps down from a higher energy level to a lower energy level, it loses energy, and since that energy still has to go somewhere, it is released from the electron as a photon. This process is known as emission.

When an electron jumps to a higher energy level from a lower one, it absorbs energy from light that has interacted with it. This process is known as absorption.

I am here with some info on Beryllium!

Properties:

Element: Beryllium!!

# in period table: 4

Atomic mass: 9.0122

Family: Alkaline Earth Metals

# of valence electrons: 2

Isotopes: 1 natural isotope(stable); 11 synthetic isotopes(unstable)

Melting point: 1287°C

- Forms a layer of beryllium oxide when heated, to protect from corrosion.

- forms covalent bonds instead of ionic bonds, unusual for an alkaline earth metal.

- does not oxidize in air at room temperature.

History:

In antiquity, beryllium was associated with a mineral called Beryl. Beryl was valued for its gemstones such as emerald and aquamarine. These were used for their decorative and supposed healing properties.

1798- Louis Nicola Vauquelin, a French chemist, discovers a sweet tasting compound within the emeralds and beryl. He decides to call it glucinium(derived from the Greek word, glukus, meaning sweetness).

He analyzes the compound with chemical reactions.

One of his tests resulted in the creation of what he called glycinium, which we now know is beryllium oxide.

Vauquelin never recognizes this as a new element, just as another part of beryl.

1828- Friedrich Wöhler uses Potassium to isolate the element beryllium from beryllium chloride.

1930s- Beryllium is used in x ray machines.

1932- James Chadwick discovers the neutron through an experiment where he shot fast moving particles through a piece of beryllium.

1942- beryllium is introduced into the manhattan project because of how it interacts with neutrons.

1946- Two half spheres of beryllium are used in a set of Criticality experiments which go wrong and claim the life of Louis Slotin. (C’mon, I just had to mention the demon core!!! Big day for beryllium….)

1949- the name ‘Beryllium’ is officially standardized in the periodic table.

Uses:

18 hexagonal mirrors that make up the primary mirror on the James Webb space telescope

- Stiff/lightweight material

- Doesn’t change its shape at extremely low temperatures

- able to withstand certain levels of collisions

Windows in X-ray machines

- withstands high pressure and temperatures

- low density makes it appear transparent

Nuclear reactors

- Neutron moderator/reflector

- shields materials to protect them against radiation

That’s all for today!! Thanks for reading!

(Art’s a little rushed since it’s almost midnight, but eh I got something done…)

(Bohr model object oc I just made up for this)

I’ve been busy with college these past 2 days so I haven’t been able to work on a post, so today’s will be short….

Today I learned that all Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light(approximately 300,000,000meters per second) in a vacuum.

Approximate light speed written in scientific notation: 3 x 10^8m/s

I’m going to make a longer post(about beryllium) tomorrow! In the meantime, here is some art I made a little while ago.

The electromagnetic spectrum is the entire range of electromagnetic radiation. It is organized by wavelength and frequency.

Some quick vocab:

Nanometer(nm)- a measurement of length in the metric system that is 1 billionth of a meter. (10^9m)

Ionizing radiation –radiation powerful enough to knock an electron away from an atom. This can change the chemical composition of material that it interacts with.

The EM spectrum is separated into several different categories which each have their own properties.

Note: The wavelengths below are just approximations.

Radio waves(discovered in 1888)

Wavelengths >1 mm

Longest wavelength/Low frequency/low energy

Used in things like am/fm radio, Mobile phones, and wireless computer networks.

Microwaves(predicted in 1864 by James Clark Maxwell, discovered in 1888 by Heinrich Hertz)

Wavelengths from 10^6 nm - 1 m

Used in microwaves and things such as wi-Fi or cell phone communications.

Infrared(discovered in 1800 by William Herschel)

Wavelengths from 780 – 1,000,000 nm

Invisible to the human eye, but can be detected by humans as heat. Can be used in things like thermal imaging to capture heat signatures, or TV remotes.

Visible light

Wavelengths between 380 – 700 nm

The only part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to us.

Wavelengths that help us to see colors. We also use visible light to transmit Data through optical fibers.

Ultraviolet(discovered in 1801 by Johann Willhelm Ritter)

Wavelengths between 100 - 400 nm

Divided into three regions called near UV, for UV, and extreme UV. The former being closest to visible light.

Energy from this category onward can be harmful to humans, as it could cause ionization.

X-rays(discovered in 1895 by Willhelm Conrad Roentgen)

Wavelengths from 0.01 – 10 nm

Used for a medical imaging and cancer treatments. Doctors use invisible electromagnetic beams that pass through the body to create an image of bones, organs and internal tissues.

Gamma rays(discovered in 1900 by Paul Villard)

Wavelengths <0.01nm

Shortest wavelength> High frequency> High energy

Gamma ray bursts occur in space and can release more energy than our sun can in its entire lifetime.

Gamma rays can also be used in cancer treatments, or for sterilization.

Fun fact: The sun emits light from the whole electromagnetic spectrum.

That’s all for today. See ya tomorrow!

Today I went over an introduction to the Electromagnetic spectrum.

Some quick vocab:

Radiation – energy/particles that move through space. They can interact with matter.

Electromagnetic radiation – a form of energy that moves through space as self sustaining waves. This energy is transferred by oscillations in the electromagnetic field.

Photon – a particle of electromagnetic radiation.

How does an electromagnetic wave propagate itself?

If an electric field changes, it creates a magnetic field.

If a magnetic field changes, it creates an electric field.

This basically becomes a feedback loop which allows the wave to sustain itself.

Measuring the electromagnetic spectrum:

Wavelength – the distance from one peak of a wave to the next peak.

EM wavelengths range between 10^3 to 10^-12 meters.

Frequency – the number of wave cycles in a period of time.

EM frequency ranges from 10^4 to 10^20.

Energy - increases as frequency increases. (Can be measured using the electronvolt (eV). This measures the energy of individual photons.)

Shorter wavelength> higher frequency> higher energy photons

That is all for today! I’ll be going over the regions of the EM spectrum tomorrow, so see you then!

The Bohr Model:

Visualizes atoms as having rings, called shells, around their nucleus. In each shell resides a certain number of electrons.

Shell 1 can only hold up to 2 electrons.

Shell 2 can hold up to 8 electrons.

Etc.

The Electron cloud model:

More abstract, showing a black cloud that signifies the electron cloud, which is the area that electrons are found. This cloud appears as a fading gradient, with the darkest parts closest to the nucleus. The darker the area, the more likely you will find electrons there.

Also known as the quantum mechanical model. Developed by Erwin Schrödinger. This model represents the wave-like nature of electrons, but it’s not as practical(for learning in school) as the Bohr model because you can’t see the number of electrons in this model.

Yzmoderivative/CC-BY-SA-3.0/Wikimedia Commons

Neither of these models are 100% accurate, but they can help you better try to visualize an atom.

Electrons in the Bohr Model:

Each shell around the nucleus of the atom has a different energy level. The higher the shell number, the greater the energy of the electrons within that shell.

Electrons do not orbit the nucleus using the path of the electron shell. This shell is there to show you each energy level only. Electrons cannot exist outside of these shells.

Valence electrons: Electrons that are part of the outermost electron shell.

Valence shell: the outermost shell of an atom.

Valence electrons are important because they are the electrons that actually take part in chemical reactions.

I’ve had a very rough day today so this is gonna be very short!

Today I learned that when atoms become monoatomic anions(-), the root of the element’s name changes to “-ide”.

Chlorine > Chloride

Fluorine > Flouride

This is just to denote that it is negatively charged.

Cations(+) keep the same element name.

Chlorine > Chlorine Ion

Fluorine > Fluorine Ion

That is all for today! I’ll share a little bfdi animation I made a few days ago to compensate for such a short post.

Today I will be talking briefly about Ions!

Ion- a positively or negatively charged atom.

Atoms contain positively charged protons and negatively charged electrons. In a neutral atom, your protons will equal your electrons.

If you remove or add an electron, there is now an imbalance and the atom will become either a negatively or positively charged ion.

Example: a neutral carbon atom has 6 protons and 6 electrons.

If you remove one electron you’re left with 6 protons and 5 electrons. Since there are more protons(+), it becomes positively charged ion. (Cation)

If you add one electron you're left with 6 protons and 7 electrons. Since there are more electrons(-), it becomes a negatively charged ion. (Anion)

Depending on the difference between the protons and electrons, the charge number may vary.

I added some question examples to show this:

That’s all for today!! See ya tomorrow!

Today I’ll be focusing on atomic mass units! I had a hard time wrapping my head around this one, so please feel free to let me know if I share anything incorrectly!

We measure the mass of things using the kilogram, but since atoms are so small, a new unit of measurement was made for them called the:

Unified atomic mass unit (u) - a unit of measurement that is 1/12 the mass of a carbon-12 atom.

The measurement uses 1/12 of the carbon-12 atom, which in essence states that 1 proton or 1 neutron equals 1 (u).

Protons and neutrons are not exactly 1 AMU each though, 1 neutron=1.008665amu and 1 proton=1.007276amu, but we usually round them.

This new unit would measure atoms relative to one another.

Any isotope could be used as the basis, but carbon-12 was the most practical, stable and abundant.

This unit of measurement provides a consistent scale for the mass of atoms that scientists can work with.

History:

Oxygen had initially been the standard at first, while the atomic mass unit was represented using (amu).

1 amu = mass of oxygen/16

Why 16? Because oxygen’s mass number is 16.

This was the standard for a while until isotopes were discovered. Since oxygen consists of isotopes(Oxygen-16;-17 & -18), taking it from different places would end up calculating different results. Because of these variations, scientists would get varying results that would just cause confusion.

Afterwards a compromise was made to simply use carbon – 12 as the basis sense it's easier to measure and much more common in nature.

That’s all for today and I’ll see you tomorrow!

Here’s a little doodle of some of my favorite bfdi characters!

I learned about the difference between mass number and atomic weight.

Usually when you look at certain periodic tables you will notice a number labeled as atomic weight.

Atomic weight measures a weighted average of the naturally occurring isotopes of an element. This average calculates the atomic mass and abundance of each isotope.

Abundance: how prevalent it is in nature.

Atomic mass(A)=protons+neutrons.

Atomic weight = (Isotope mass * abundance) + (Isotope variation mass * abundance) etc….

Note: Because of the way atoms are measured, the numbers usually aren’t exact, for example, the atomic mass of lithium-6 actually equals to about 6.015.(and this number is still rounded) My next post will cover atomic mass units more in depth! Moving on….

Example:

There are 2 naturally occurring isotopes of Lithium, Lithium-6 and Lithium-7.

Lithium-6 has an abundance of about 7.5%

Lithium-7 has an abundance of about 92.5%

Atomic weight = 6.015(0.075)+7.016(0.925) =6.941

So the atomic weight of Lithium is about 6.941 (this number ranges since it’s rounded in some instances).

Atomic weight is useful when performing chemical reactions, as they rely on the numerical relationships among atoms.

That’s all for today! I don’t know that much about the elements yet, but Beryllium is my favorite so far.

Today’s focus is simply isotope notation!(I was very busy today and now it’s late. Ill make up for it with some art)

Yesterday isotopes were introduced as different variations of a particular atom by changing the amount of neutrons within it.

The example used was carbon with 6 protons & 6 neutrons vs. carbon with 6 protons & 7 neutrons.

These different isotopes need naming conventions. This is where Isotope notation comes in.

One version of isotope notation is: Element’s name-mass number (ex. Beryllium-10)

In order to differentiate a carbon atom that has six neutrons from one that has seven neutrons, we use their mass number in their name.

Carbon with 6 protons and 7 neutrons has a mass number of 13, therefore this isotope will be called Carbon-13.

I made a review sheet for myself to better understand how mass/atomic number connects with isotopes.

Another version of isotope notation includes the method below: (the previous image can be referenced as well since they’re related)

And finally I’ll share some bfdi art I made recently since I’d like to mix my two interests together. See you tomorrow!

- measurements

-mass/atomic numbers

-isotopes

Volume is a measurement of the amount of space that an object takes up. Mass is the amount of matter within the object.

Density is a function of volume and mass and is how much physical matter is present in a set area. The formula is Mass/Volume=Density.

We can thank Ernest Rutherford for the discovery of the atomic nucleus in 1911.

Today I also learned about 2 types of numbers.

Atomic numbers- which are the total number of Protons in the nucleus of an atom, represented using (Z).

Mass numbers- the total mass of an atom, using # of Protons + # of neutrons, represented using (A).

An isotope is a different version of one particular element due to a changed number of neutrons within it. Example: carbon has 6 protons and 6 neutrons. An isotope of carbon would be a carbon atom with 7 neutrons instead of 6.

I will cover isotope notation tomorrow since im sleepy now! See you then!

So just refreshing the basics of chem:

Matter is made up of atoms.

Atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons, which can also be called subatomic particles.

Protons have a positive charge.

Neutrons have a neutral charge.

Electrons have a negative charge.

Protons and neutrons are located in the atom's nucleus(using the bohr model), and electrons are located in the electron cloud, which is the space around the nucleus.

When an atom's protons equal its electrons, then it is neutral. If an electron is added, it becomes a negatively charged ion, and if an electron is taken away, it becomes a positively charged ion.

- An atom's identity(element) is determined by how many protons it has in its nucleus.

- An atom's mass is determined by its protons and neutrons.

- An atom's reactivity is determined by the number of electrons it has.

That is all for today. See ya tomorrow.