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Elements (Laura Young).pptx
- 1. Sir Humphry Davy 1778 -1829 British Chemist and Inventor (among other things)
- 2. Davy’s Background Born tomiddle-class parents in Penzance, Cornwall in 1778 but was knighted and made a baronet later in life for contributions to his country and mankind. He was a popular lecturer at the Royal Institution, where he made many of his most important contributions to the field of science. Davy discovered multiple elements in his lifetime, and no one has quite managed to compete with it since – some of which are deemed the most important contribution to chemistry since Isaac Newton. He also was famous for inventing a Miners’ safety lamp, the ‘Davy Lamp’, which prevented the explosions in working mines. Davy was instrumental in the field of science, especially chemistry. He is most known for his elemental discoveries.
- 3. Elements • A quickrecap on the definition of elements • Why are elements important to discover • Might be easy to think that elements are simple to discover as some have been known since ancient times – e.g. gold, silver and copper. Even lead was known in Roman times as it was used for plumbing pipes. • But nature decided that some elements would only naturally occur inside compounds – multiple elements bonded together, e.g. water
- 4. Isolation of Elements …and is credited with huge contributions to the discovery and understanding of chlorine and iodine
- 5. Potassium and Sodium Potassium andSodium are the more significant element discoveries of Davy. They were the first to be separated from their compound using an early battery. The opposite charges created by live electricity running through molten compounds caused their elements to attract to different charges – but with EXPLOSIVE results. With further observations, it was known that the separate were the elements POTASSIUM and SODIUM. https://youtu.be/Jy1DC6Euqj4
- 6. Discuss handout questionswith the person sat next to you
Editor's Notes
- #3 Can zoom through this page and adjust accordingly
- #4 Ask why some elements are only found naturally in compounds instead as pure elements – because they are too reactive (esp. with water and air) and therefore unstable. Other elements calm down their reactive tendencies.
- #5 Have people guess how many Also, before Boron comes in – say the others are connected as they have the same isolation method of electrolysis Ask if anyone has heard of any of these and explain
- #6 This is the experiment the notebook page was going on about. Emphasise the role of electricity as it was what allowed Davy to force the reaction to head in the direction of separating the elemental compounds. The explosive results were a cause of the pure elements of potassium and sodium reacting with the air and often Davy made it more dramatic by throwing them into a pool of water and watching them combust – K = lavender flame and Na = yellow flame