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HELIUM

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Helium, It has an atomic number of two

Helium, You can put it ina green ba-lloon

It's phase at room temperature is a gas

When it comes to elements this one isnt last

It's first

So dont try to pull that trick on me

It makes your voice sound funny yippee!

 

 

History
Industrial Uses
Chemical Facts
Inert Gases (Noble Gases)
Political Importance of Helium

 

 

Helium (He) was discovered in 1868 by Pierre Janssen and Norman Lockyer. Lockyer named it after the Sun God, Helios. Janssen was observing a solar eclipse when he saw a yellow spectral line signature. Lockyer saw the same thing, and he suggested that it may be a new element. The element was first identified on the sun. In 1895, it was found on earth by Sir William Ramsay. He helped separate helium from a mineral containing uranium called cleveite.

Helium’s symbol is He. Its Atomic Number is 2, and its Atomic Weight is 4.002602. After hydrogen, it is the most abundant element in the entire universe. Combined with hydrogen, helium makes up 99.9% of the elements in the universe. It also has the lowest boiling (-268.93 C) and melting point (-272.2 C) of any of the elements. It is as a non-metal. On the earth, helium is not held down by gravity and simply floats up into space. When larger elements decay, they release helium. The earth's atmospheric helium is replaced by the decay of radioactive elements in the earth's crust. Alpha decay, one type of radioactive decay, produces particles called alpha particles. An alpha particle can become a helium atom once it captures two electrons from its surroundings. This newly formed helium can eventually work its way to the atmosphere through cracks in the crust.

Helium is commercially recovered mostly in Texas Oklahoma and Kansas and is used primarily to inflate objects such as blimps and balloons. It is also used for arc welding, pressurizing fuel tanks, and mixing with oxygen for deep sea divers. Finally, it is used in supersonic wind tunnels. Liquid helium is used to study superconductivity as well as for operating electron accelerators. Some 3 billion cubic feet of Helium is produced commercially per year. Helium is also frequently used in cryogenic research.
Helium belongs to the non-metal family. Helium is also a inert gas (noble gas) but I will talk about that in the next paragraph. Helium is just about as far from being a metal as physically possible. Elements that are metals start on the left hand side of the periodic table and run across it a good distance. Then transition metals and metalloids. On to the right, we see nonmetals, and helium (He, group 18) is placed on the top right corner of the periodic table, about as far from being a metal as anything can be.
Helium also, like a said before, belong to the inert gas or noble gas family.
The elements that belong to group 18 of the periodic table are very, very un-reactive but they are not non-reactive as compounds containing these elements have been synthesized. There are no naturally occurring compounds that are made up of these elements.

The cost of helium fell from $2500/ft3 in 1915 to 1.5 cents /ft3 in 1940. The U.S. Bureau of Mines has set the price of Grade A helium at $37.50/1000 ft3 in 1986. The fusion of hydrogen into helium provides the energy of the hydrogen bomb. The helium content of the atmosphere is about 1 part in 200,000. While it is present in various radioactive minerals as a decay product, the bulk of the Free World's supply is obtained from wells in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. Outside the United States, the only known helium extraction plants, in 1984 were in Eastern Europe (Poland), the USSR, and a few in India.

 

 
 

Table
ATOMIC NUMBER= 2 FAMILY= INERT GAS OTHER FAMILY= NON-METAL
USED IN BALLOONS ALSO USED IN SUPERSONIC WINDTUNNELS USED IN ARCH WELDING

 

IM HELIUM TOGETHER ME AND HYDROGEN MAKE UP 99.9% OF THE ELEMENTS IN THE UNIVERSE CLICK ME FOR MORE INFO

 

Glossary

Inert Gas

Alpha Particles

Super Conductivity

Alpha Decay

Any of the elements in Group O of the periodic table, including helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon, which are monatomic and with limited exceptions chemically inert. Also called inert gas.

consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus; hence, it can be written as He2+ or 42He2+. They are a highly ionizing form of particle radiation, and have low penetration.

Superconductivity is a phenomenon occurring in certain materials generally at very low temperatures, characterized by exactly zero electrical resistance and the exclusion of the interior magnetic field

Alpha decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus and transforms into an atom with a mass number 4 less and atomic number 2 less

 

 

Bibliography
 

1)Chemical Elements G-O by: David E. Newton. This book was the first book I read and it told me the basic chemical facts like the atomic # of helium and what group it is and what family
2) The Elements Second Edition by: John Emsley. This book told me the industrial uses of helium and the history like who discovered it.
3) http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/2.html.
   Los Alamos National Lab Elements Info by Robert Husted
4) http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele002.html.
    It’s Elemental by Steve Gagnon
5) http://www.chemicool.com/elements/helium.html#general.
    Chemicool by David D. Hsu


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