• Question: Off the top of your head do you know how many elements are in the periodic table (if you do then how many)?

    Asked by 522bdta32 to Anna, George, Jodi, Rob, Stefan on 17 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 635bdta32.
    • Photo: George Ryall

      George Ryall answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Nope, not off the top of my head. I find there are very few facts I have to remember, most things you can look up if you need to. Also the number of elements has probably changed since I learnt it at school!

    • Photo: Jodi Schneider

      Jodi Schneider answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      No, I agree with George: it’s useful to have a rough idea (more than 50 elements, fewer than 300). But the most important thing, for me as a scientist, is to know how to think about a question — and to be able to look up the relevant facts.

    • Photo: Anna Scaife

      Anna Scaife answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Nope… in fact the number is always changing as people find new elements. I found this great web tool:

      http://www.rsc.org/periodic-table/history

      You can type in a year and it will show you which elements we didn’t know about then. For example in 2000 the element Livermorium (Lv 116) was added – a group tried to add it in 1999 but it turned out that they’d made up their results! In 2000 someone actually made it and it got added.

    • Photo: Stefan Lines

      Stefan Lines answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Nope. Is it something like 120? I remember being interested in the heavy atoms like Ununuium.

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