Electrons

First in this unit, as a class we explored why fireworks produce different colors. To answer this question we first burned different elements to see what colors were produced. After many attempts, we found that the color elements produce when burned is in direct correlation with its ionization energy. Elements with higher ionization energies produce more light energy when burned while elements with lower ionization energies produce less light energy. Therefore, multiple colors were produced such as violet and green.

Next, we learned how to write the electron configurations for each element. Using this knowledge we played intense games of Battleship and Bingo consisting of finding and playing with different electron configurations.

For our next question, we discovered why some elements are more magnetic than others. Shown in the picture on the left we burnt a the zinc in a penny and was left with just copper. We then tested their magnetism and found that copper was slightly more magnetic than zinc. This is due to how many unpaired electrons the elements have in their outer sub-shell. Zinc was not magnetic(diamagnetic) meaning that it has no unpaired electrons or in other words it is full. Copper on the other hand was magnetic(paramagnetic) meaning that it had unpaired electron/s in its outer sub-shell.

Lastly, using our knowledge of electron configurations we learned about the graphs the TSA use at airports to determine what elements people have interacted with known as Photoelectron Spectra(PES). These are basically the graphs of different electron configurations with number of electrons on the y-axis and binding energy on the x-axis.

Although this topic was at first very difficult, by the end I managed to understand all the information pretty thoroughly. I did not do as well as I would have liked on the test but looking back my mistakes were careless and I am confident I know all the material. I am very pleased with my work on this topic and despite my lack of good pictures I learned a very significant amount.

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