Page 133 - 2023 eMag Final Draft

It took humans long as it was found as a glowing white rock. Its discovery might be an accident, but a great
enough to figure out that one.
there are pure substances
called elements— a few How about we talk about helium, the gas famous for making people’s voices a

thousand years, as a few pitches higher? How interesting it is that it was once almost mistaken for sodium,
matter of fact. Many are which is far from what helium is. How did they mess up that obvious mistake? Well,
fascinated by the periodic it is because helium was first discovered using the observations of sunlight, through
table in their science analysing the spectra of light they emit. Coincidentally, the wavelength of helium was so
classes, or have stumbled similar to that of sodium, yet a bit different, so it was mistaken and left untouched until
upon the concept of the someone noticed it again. Many thought helium could only possibly exist in the sun,
elements usually found but not so long after, they got doubted by the lava of Mount Vesuvius, which is the first
in your favourite TV indication of helium on earth. It was confirmed to be a new element 12 years later. The
shows. It is a concept that name helium was named after the Greek god or personification of the sun, Helios.

has been twirling around
our heads for the last few Many elements were found around the Age of Enlightenment, and it did not take long for
thousands of years, even scientists to realise there is something going on, something much more arcane, which is
until today. the coincidences of the elements that once seemed random and chaotic, which developed
into the later on, periodic table, which is extraordinary. And yes, we are talking about the
First, let's go through Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev. Many scientists have tried to arrange the elements,
the more ancient ideas on yet he was the one who truly succeeded. He was smart to figure out how to leave some
the concept of elements. gaps in it to later fill them with newly discovered elements. Through the pattern of it,
It had already been Mendeleev even succeeded in predicting many undiscovered elements, which turned
circulated since ancient out to be correct. It is quite a pity he failed to win the Nobel Prize.
Egypt, China and so on.

The idea then came to the
iconic Greek philosopher The elements nowadays play an important role in our lives. You have probably
Aristotle, who suggested heard some family members talk about how important it is to take in enough calcium
that there might be and potassium. You might also think the scientists are done with the elements by now,
something fascinating that forms the physical world. He then thought of the early but that would be wrong, as new elements just waved hello to us not so long ago. The list
“elements”. Well, Aristotle might have just sat beside a fireplace and started thinking, as of elements will go on for a long period of time, so be sure to keep an eye out when future
the “elements” he preached were earth, fire, water and air, which are responsible for the members of the periodic table are found.
burning of logs and sticks, amplified to portray how they form the entire world.

Written by Teoh Yu Ning Jr3D(2)
He was lucky that the idea survived for a fairly long time, until the alchemists Illustration by Tan Xin Yee Sr1A
came in. Many of them were crazy about the philosopher’s stone, which is believed to
be able to turn metals into gold. Hennig Brand was an alchemist in the 17th century. He
ran through several experiments in the hope of finding the philosopher’s stone, which
is still an enigma. He then stumbled across something considered an actual element,
phosphorus, when he was running an experiment to distil human urine. He named what [Editor’s Recommendation: “Little Alchemy” is an online game where
you can mix the elements of earth, fire, water and air together in different
he found phosphorus, from the Greek word Phōsphóros, which means bringer of light,
combinations to form a huge variety of items. Feel free to try it out!]

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