• Question: do you know the periodic table of by heart? i know a little bit of it.

    Asked by biskinkiki1234 to Angus, Christian, Hannah, Laura, Simon on 17 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Angus Ferraro

      Angus Ferraro answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I don’t know much of the periodic table at all I’m afraid. OK, perhaps I know roughly where things are but after the first few rows I get pretty lost! My work doesn’t involve much chemistry though. Presumably chemistry types have a lot of it stored away in their head!

    • Photo: Hannah Bentham

      Hannah Bentham answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I used to know quite a bit of it. I think they made us learn it at school.

      I vaguely know where the most common elements are, but I am guilty of having a print out on my wall 🙂

    • Photo: Laura Roberts Artal

      Laura Roberts Artal answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      I don’t know much of it either! I know most of the main elements and their symbols, but not in any particular order and don’t ask me to place them on the table, I’d have no idea! I could guess, maybe… :s!

    • Photo: Christian Maerz

      Christian Maerz answered on 17 Jun 2013:

      This might be a bit embarrassing for me as a geochemist, but I do not know the whole periodic table by heart. I used to, but now I am only familiar with the elements I am studying within my field of research. I guess you simply forget things over the years if you don’t constantly “re-learn” them…

    • Photo: Simon Holyoake

      Simon Holyoake answered on 18 Jun 2013:

      I’m afraid I don’t know it either!

      I can remember most of the ‘interesting’ groups, such as alkali metals and halogens, and generally remember them in the correct order too

      As an engineer, the main thing we are interested in are semiconductors and how to make them work in a certain way (so, mostly silicone, sometimes gallium and arsenic too)

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