What is your favorite element on the periodic table?

[Alex K]

Im actually quite fond of oxygen.  It seems I can keep away for more than 2-3 minutes.

I still nominate Hydrogen.

1. It's the only one that is relatively easy to calculate
2. It was there first
3. It's a crucial component of Whisky

[robvalue]

I'll go with magnesium. Our teachers at school were obsessed with showing us how violently it reacts with stuff.

[Alex K]

I'll go with magnesium. Our teachers at school were obsessed with showing us how violently it reacts with stuff.

My high school chemistry teacher was so incompetent that lighting magnesium was literally the only experiment that worked out. That and throwing sodium in water.

[Mechaghostman2]

I forgot most of the stuff from my high school science classes. The science teachers I remember most weren't very good with science. One of them I asked why the radiation in a nuclear bomb was deadly where as the radiation from the sun wasn't, and she just said it was the chemicals in the nuclear bomb. I know now that it's the intensity of it for the most part. I asked another science teacher what would happen if you put water in a vacuum, would it expand like gasses? He said yes. I know now that the answer is no, the water would simply boil.

Science teachers in 'Murica man, they aren't scientifically literate. That's a problem.

[brewer]

Carbon. If you need to ask why you're not worth responding to.

Carbon is the slut of the periodic table though.

Yeah, but a slut with a heart of gold with bonds and decay charastics to match.

[brewer]

I forgot most of the stuff from my high school science classes. The science teachers I remember most weren't very good with science. One of them I asked why the radiation in a nuclear bomb was deadly where as the radiation from the sun wasn't, and she just said it was the chemicals in the nuclear bomb. I know now that it's the intensity of it for the most part. I asked another science teacher what would happen if you put water in a vacuum, would it expand like gasses? He said yes. I know now that the answer is no, the water would simply boil.

Science teachers in 'Murica man, they aren't scientifically literate. That's a problem.

In this instance is boiling not expansion?

[Mechaghostman2]

I forgot most of the stuff from my high school science classes. The science teachers I remember most weren't very good with science. One of them I asked why the radiation in a nuclear bomb was deadly where as the radiation from the sun wasn't, and she just said it was the chemicals in the nuclear bomb. I know now that it's the intensity of it for the most part. I asked another science teacher what would happen if you put water in a vacuum, would it expand like gasses? He said yes. I know now that the answer is no, the water would simply boil.

Science teachers in 'Murica man, they aren't scientifically literate. That's a problem.

In this instance is boiling not expansion?

Boiling is a liquid turning into a gas. I asked if the liquid water would expand, like in a tube if you removed all the water. It wouldn't.

[Edwardo Piet]

Carbon is the slut of the periodic table though.

Yeah, but a slut with a heart of gold with bonds and decay charastics to match.

A slut "but" with a heart of gold? How about a slut and with a heart of gold.

Sluts are awesome!

[Jackalope]

Im actually quite fond of oxygen.  It seems I can't keep away for more than 2-3 minutes.

I still nominate Hydrogen.

1. It's the only one that is relatively easy to calculate
2. It was there first
3. It's a crucial component of Whisky

So you're saying Hydrogen is the hipster of the periodic table?

[TheRealJoeFish]

When I was in 7th grade we had to do a report on an element. We got to pick. I think there were like 9 heliums, and a bunch of carbons and hydrogens...

I picked Seaborgium, element 106.

It was a lot of fun, and was a good complement to the other ones. Whereas most of the reports were about the properties of elements and their various forms, mine was more about the theory and practice of creating non-natural elements.

Not saying it's necessarily my favorite, but I certainly have fond memories, or something.