and senior features editor at Popular Mechanics, Runner's World, and Bicycling. A graduate of the Science Communication Program at UC Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Science News and Nature. Her favorite stories illuminate Earth's many wonders and hazards....
Just two strategies existed at the time to categorize these elements: separating them into metals and nonmetals or grouping them by an element's number of valence electrons (the electrons in the outermost shell). The first section of Mendeleev's book dealt with just eight of the known elements...
When the contacts open, the gas flows through a nozzle and strikes the arc. The gas absorbs the free electrons in the arc and forms negative ions. This reduces the conductivity of the arc and increases itsresistance. The gas also cools down the contacts and prevents restriking. SF6 circuit ...
through the electrolyte. In the case of a rechargeable battery, which every electric car packs, electrons and ions can move in either direction via circuit and electrolyte. When a battery is discharged it means both electrodes have almost the same number of electrons. In this situation, the ele...
According to the octet rule, an element that is having 8 electrons in its outermost shell or whose outermost shell is completely filled is more stable. All the elements try to lose or gain electrons to complete their octet in order to attain stability....
And since we're using a 9-volt battery to pull the movable holes in the p-type away from the electrons in the n-type, this depletion layer will be a thick one. It should act like a turned-off switch, eh? It does... and yet it doesn't. I personally think this is the strangest...
How does this happen? As you rub the balloon,electrons(the tiny negatively charged particles insideatomsthat carry electricity) move from your pullover onto the balloon. In other words, the balloon gains more electrons than it should have and picks up an overall negative electrical charge. Since...
Thenoble metalsgold, silver, platinum, palladium, and some other elements do not produce a characteristic flame test color. There are several possible explanations for this, one being that the thermal energy isn't sufficient to excite the electrons of these elements enough to release energy in th...
Or how many cars we would have to take off the road to deal with climate change? I prefer to connect everything back to the main goal of eliminating 51 billion tons a year. Consider the aviation example I mentioned at the start of this chapter, the program that’s getting rid of 17 ...
1. Mind the Investment Gap As a result, without some policy intervention—such as a price on carbon, or standards that require a certain volume of zero-carbon electrons in the marketplace—there’s no guarantee that the company that invests in sending you clean electrons will actually make mo...