The Chemical Elements Pages

The learning of Chemistry begins with the elements. There are over 100 elements and these are the building blocks of matter. Over time, scientists have discovered the elements one by one from our earth. In more recent times, they have found ways to produce a dozen or so synthetic elements.

Everything that exists in nature is made up of these elements. These substances have a wide variety of properties, and man has made use of many of these elemental properties in numerous applications ranging from the construction of the first atomic bomb to fast computers, without which electronic delivery of information via the Internet is not possible.

The intent of the element pages is to let you have an overview of the existing elements, concentrating on:

when and how they were discovered,
where they occur in nature,
some of their properties, and
their usefulness to us.

A descriptive approach is taken so that we can appreciate the efforts of the scientists who pieced together the puzzle, the periodic table as we know it today. For those that are interested in the elements' property data, there are links provided to periodic tables on the World-Wide Web.

The Chemical Elements pages are filled with hundreds of beautiful pictures that have been taken from a variety of books and posters. A bibliography of reference materials that I used to obtain historical facts and photos for the elements pages is included.

The search for new elements continues today. Many are trying to produce new elements in areas of the periodic table that hold the greatest hope for success. Today scientists still search for new elements based on the Law of Chemical Periodicity, a property that was discovered in 1914 by H.G.J. Mosley.

I hope you enjoy reading about the chemical elements as much as I have in preparing them.