Electronics World articles Popular Electronics articles QST articles Radio & TV News articles Radio-Craft articles Radio-Electronics articles Short Wave Craft articles Wireless World articles Google Search of RF Cafe website Sitemap Electronics Equations Mathematics Equations Equations physics Manufacturers & distributors Engineer Jobs LinkedIn Crosswords Engineering Humor Kirt's Cogitations RF Engineering Quizzes Notable Quotes Calculators Education Engineering Magazine Articles Engineering software RF Cafe Archives RF Cascade Workbook 2018 RF Symbols for Visio - Word Advertising Magazine Sponsor RF Cafe RF Electronics Symbols for Visio RF Electronics Symbols for Office Word RF Electronics Stencils for Visio Sponsor Links Saturday Evening Post NEETS EW Radar Handbook Microwave Museum About RF Cafe Aegis Power Systems Anritsu Alliance Test Equipment Amplifier Solutions Anatech Electronics Axiom Test Equipment Berkeley Nucleonics Centric RF Conduct RF Copper Mountain Technologies Empower RF everything RF Exodus Advanced Communications Innovative Power Products ISOTEC KR Filters PCB Directory Rigol San Francisco Circuits Reactel RF Connector Technology TotalTemp Technologies Triad RF Systems Windfreak Technologies Withwave LadyBug Technologies Wireless Telecom Group Sponsorship Rates RF Cafe Software Resources Vintage Magazines RF Cafe Software RF Cafe Sponsor Links Temwell Werbel Microwave Thank you for visiting RF Cafe!
Rigol DSG5000 Microwave Generator - RF Cafe

All Elements Heavier Than Helium Are Metals?
Kirt's Cogitations™ #272

RF Cafe University"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my rantings on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36

<Previous                     Next>

 

All Elements Heavier Than Helium Are Metals? - RF Cafe

Astronomers consider all elements heavier than helium to be metals. That definition obviously does not jive with the standard chemical definition of a metal as an element that readily conducts electricity, but a concept called "metallicity" argues that from a star (and therefore the universe) formation perspective, extremely high temperatures and pressures in first generation stars (like our sun) preclude the identification of distinct elements other than hydrogen and helium. Heavier elements, such as lithium (#3 on the periodic chart and a major component in LiIon batteries, is classified as a metal in chemistry) are overwhelmingly created after a massive enough hydrogen star collapses and begins fusing H and He into heavier elements. The relative abundance of hydrogen in the universe is deemed to be about 92%, and helium is 7.1%, so together they comprise about 99% of all elements. Universally, oxygen is at 0.1%, carbon is 0.06%, nitrogen is 0.015%, silicon is 0.006%, and iron is 0.004%. By comparison, the Earth's elemental composition is 48.8% oxygen, 14.3% iron, 13.8% silicon, 0.2% hydrogen, 0.02% carbon, 0.004% nitrogen, and <0.001% helium (which explains why He was first discovered in a spectrograph of the sun, which is 6% helium).

Periodic Table of Elements showing how they are created - RF Cafe

Periodic Table of Elements showing how they are created. (origin unknown)

As a point of interest, iron (Fe, #28) is the heaviest element that can be fused in a star and give off more energy than it takes to cause the fusion. Heavier elements require a net input of energy to fuse. How, then, are the heavier elements created if everything began with hydrogen? The violent gravitational collapse of a heavy star, known as a supernova, provides that needed energy, which subsequently causes a proportionally violent explosion spewing the newly created elements into the universe. The chart to the right shows by which process(es) the various elements are created.

 

 

Posted May 12, 2022
(updated from original post on 4/7/2016)

Innovative Power Products Couplers
Anritsu Test Equipment - RF Cafe
Innovative Power Products Passive RF Products - RF Cafe
withwave microwave devices - RF Cafe
TotalTemp Technologies (Thermal Platforms) - RF Cafe

Please Support RF Cafe by purchasing my  ridiculously low−priced products, all of which I created.

These Are Available for Free

 

About RF Cafe

Kirt Blattenberger - RF Cafe Webmaster

Copyright: 1996 - 2024

Webmaster:

    Kirt Blattenberger,

    BSEE - KB3UON

RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling 2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps while tying up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail" when a new message arrived...

All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.

My Hobby Website:

AirplanesAndRockets.com