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| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| | + | {{incomplete|Created HALF AN HOUR AFTER THE CREATION OF EXPLAINXKCD - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| | + | {{w|Chemical elements|Some elements}} do not occur naturally on earth and have to be {{w|Synthetic element|synthesized}}. Those elements are generally excluded from {{w|periodic table|the periodic table}} until they have been synthesized (and are no longer theoretical). At the beginning of the universe, the temperature, and thus the kinetic energy, was too high for matter to form big nuclei. It took some time (how long is not accurately defined) before parts of the universe had cooled down sufficiently for further elements to form naturally. In the first minutes after the big bang only hydrogen, deuterium, helium and lithium nuclei were present. If an imaginary scientific textbook were somehow written back then (note: neither paper nor living organisms existed{{citation needed}}), it would be able to describe only a very few elements based on observations. |
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| − | This comic shows figure 6.14 from a science text book, which displays ''The {{w|periodic table}} of the elements'', but with only the first four elements ({{w|hydrogen}}, {{w|helium}}, {{w|lithium}} and {{w|beryllium}}) shown. [[Randall]] claims in the caption that you can use such charts to date a publication based upon the {{w|Chemical elements|elements}} present or missing. While this is true in a sense - for example, {{w|Nihonium}}, {{w|Moscovium}}, {{w|Tennessine}} and {{w|Oganesson}} were first discovered in 2003 and named in 2016, thus charts made before 2016 would have the {{w|systematic element name}}s Ununtrium, Ununpentium, Ununseptium and Ununoctium and completely absent before 2003 - Randall injects humor by taking it to the extreme and showcasing a periodic table from a book published just half an hour after the {{w|Big Bang}}, at which time those four elements were the only ones present.
| + | The title text refers to how yet-undiscovered elements are given a {{w|Systematic element name|temporary name according to how many protons they have}}. Here the numbers are very low ("pentium" being based on "pent" which means "five") because only four elements had been discovered at the time of publication. |
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| − | From about 10 seconds until about 20 minutes after the Big Bang, the phase that is known as the {{w|Big Bang nucleosynthesis}} occurred. At that time, hydrogen ions (single protons) provided for helium in abundance and traces of lithium. Some berylium-7 was also formed, which is an unstable {{w|Isotopes of beryllium|isotope}} having a half life of 53 days. Randall's science book was published when those four elements were the only ones in existence, even though this would be absurd since no life as we know it could exist with only these four elements to write and publish the book; perhaps it is why Randall's mysterious textbook seems and manages to reflect the direct state of elements existing in nature, even though the real life periodic table was slowly filled out based on what could be easily found and later synthesized. For example, despite helium being one of the first elements to exist, and still one of the most common in the universe (roughly 24%, by mass, with hydrogen being around 75% and every other element combined being the remainder), it did not appear in the earliest periodic tables.
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| − | The title text refers to how yet-undiscovered elements are given a {{w|systematic element name}} as a temporary name, until a more permanent name is decided upon. The names are based upon a standard group of Greek and Latin roots that read out the decimal digits of an element's unique {{w|atomic number}} (i.e., the number of protons) and adding "-ium" to the end. The claim in the title text is that, in the textbook with the figure, researchers claim they have synthesized six additional elements in the second row, temporarily named 'pentium' (atomic number "5") through to 'unnilium' ("one zero", or "10"). In reality, all these elements are well known as {{w|Boron}}, {{w|Carbon}}, {{w|Nitrogen}}, {{w|Oxygen}}, {{w|Fluorine}} and {{w|Neon}}. | |
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| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
| − | | + | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| − | :[Subheading]: Figure 6.14
| + | :Figure 6.14 |
| − | :[Title]: The periodic table of the elements
| + | :The periodic table of the elements |
| − | | + | :Hydrogen |
| − | :[The following four rectangles featuring the large element abbreviation, with the full element name written below, in a typical periodic table style]
| + | :Helium |
| − | :[Top row, far left]: H Hydrogen | + | :Lithium |
| − | :[Top row, far right, detached from any other box]: He Helium | + | :Beryllium |
| − | :[Bottom row, attached directly below the "H" box]: Li Lithium | |
| − | :[Bottom row, attached directly to the right of "Li"]: Be Beryllium | |
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| − | :[Caption below the panel]:
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| | :You can spot an outdated science textbook by checking the bottom of the periodic table for missing elements. For example, mine was published half an hour after the Big Bang. | | :You can spot an outdated science textbook by checking the bottom of the periodic table for missing elements. For example, mine was published half an hour after the Big Bang. |
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| | {{comic discussion}} | | {{comic discussion}} |
| − | [[Category:Chemistry]]
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| − | [[Category:Cosmology]]
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| − | [[Category:Science]]
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