Electrons
IMG_4081.MOV(Forgive the compression). The idea of this experiment was to demonstrate magnetism, and how different compounds and elements reacted to magnets depending on their electron configuration.
The motivation behind this demonstration was to show the correlation between energy levels, electron numbers, and the binding energy of an element. Ultimately, the energy level did the most to affect the binding energy.
This motor, called a homopolar motor, propels a copper wire in a circle around the battery it is based on. This motion comes from the copper wire completing a circuit with the AAA battery and the pull of magnets underneath the battery.
Here is a simple graph comparing Atomic numbers on the periodic table (left being one, right being 86) and the corresponding binding energies. As one moves left to right, a staircase pattern emerges, explained by the relationship between protons and a high binding energy, and electron levels and a significantly lower binding energy.
The focus of this journey was electrons, or more specifically, electrons and how their number and position changes the effects they have. To start the chapter we began by writing out the "addresses or electron configurations of many of the elements on the periodic table. While a bit confusing at the beginning, after a few repetitions (and with the help of the labeled periodic table), the electron configurations are now just a bit annoying to write out. There is however the noble gas shortcut, which allows one to avoid writing much of the long configurations of the atom's electrons. The final way we learned to write the electron configurations involved "spreading out" the last electrons in the shell. The representation of this is shown in the picture above, but it allows for one to see quite easily how magnetic an element is. The term for describing an element that is pulled towards a magnetic field is para magnetic, while an element that has no reaction is diamagnetic. Finally, we looked at photo-electron spectroscopy and binding energy. Binding energy is the energy required to remove the outermost electron from an element. Photo-electron spectroscopy is the process in which valence electrons are "knocked off" and the binding energy required for this identifies the element on the Periodic Table. Every element has a unique PES graph, with protons increasing binding energy, and an added electron shell vastly diminishing binding energy.