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Chemistry: 5.8 Periodic Trends 120 Views


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Description:

Trends come and go periodically, but this periodic trend is here to stay. Forever. How is that possible? Check out the video to find out.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Meet Yolanda. Yolanda likes

00:06

things done a certain way. It goes beyond [Yolanda waving]

00:08

just needing every hair on her head to

00:11

be perfectly in place or insisting on [Yolanda combing her hair]

00:13

wrinkle-free clothing. Everything on her [Yolanda ironing]

00:15

desk needs to be at precise 90 or 180

00:18

degree angles from the edges. The

00:21

thermostat must always be set at exactly [Yolanda adjusting the thermostat]

00:24

70 degrees she arranges the corn flakes

00:27

in her cereal bowl into fractal patterns.

00:29

Yeah... it's intense. Anyway, so it's no wonder

00:32

that she's picky about the way her

00:34

elements are organized. If her table of [Messy table of elements]

00:37

elements looked like this, she'd have a

00:39

complete and total freak out. Yeah, she's

00:42

got a few simple rules. First, all

00:44

elements must be organized by atomic

00:46

radius. Atomic radius, which is one half

00:50

the distance between the nuclei of two

00:52

atoms, is used to determine an atom's size. [The atomic radius is shown on an element]

00:56

When Yolanda arranges her elements,

00:58

she demands that the atomic radii decrease

01:01

from left to right and increase from top [The direction of the decrease and increase are shown by arrows]

01:04

to bottom, like so. Yolanda's second

01:06

major ask is that the elements are

01:08

organized according to [The rules being written on a checklist]

01:10

electronegativity. Here, she prefers--okay,

01:13

prefers may not be a forceful enough word-- [Yolanda with her arms crossed]

01:16

that electronegativity, or an atom's

01:19

ability to attract an electron, increases

01:21

from left to right and decreases from

01:24

top to bottom.

01:25

There, perfect. We should be good on all

01:27

this now right? But no, Yolanda's [Dog looking disappointed]

01:29

fussiness knows no bounds. Her next

01:32

requirement is that the elements'

01:33

ionization energy, or the amount of

01:36

energy needed to remove an electron from

01:38

an atom, increases from left to right and [The elements are shown organised by their ionization energy]

01:41

decreases from top to bottom.

01:43

Well great...what top-notch organization.

01:46

Doesn't look like it could be improved

01:47

upon even a smidge. [Yolanda's dog giving a paw]

01:49

Oh, but wait: Yolanda also has a thing about

01:52

electron affinity, which is the measure

01:55

of how much an atom "wants" another

01:57

electron. Are they as hungry for one as this guy, [Guy with 4 burgers in front of him]

02:00

or are they more the house salad type? [Guy sat with a plate of salad]

02:03

Well, Yolanda won't settle for any

02:05

organizational approach that doesn't have

02:06

elements increasing

02:08

to electron affinity from left to

02:11

right and decreasing from top to bottom.

02:13

And wouldn't you know it? Yolanda's table looks [The periodic table is shown]

02:15

a bit like the periodic table. In fact, it

02:18

looks exactly like the periodic table,

02:20

which is because when the periodic table

02:22

was first put together in its current format, [Guy putting together the periodic table in segments]

02:24

it was assembled by an individual who

02:27

was as passionate as Yolanda about [Dmitri Mendeleev's dog saying "He never pets me."]

02:29

achieving a harmonious composition.

02:32

Unfortunately for our hero, she's going

02:34

to be a wee bit bummed when she finds

02:35

out that her submission for the Yolanda

02:38

table of the elements was denied by the

02:41

U.S. Patent Office. [Denied stamp on her application]

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