Elements

Question 1 What are elements? Give example?

Question 2 Define the term atom?

Question 3 Name 2 types of elements?

Elements

A substance which cannot be broken down into two or more simpler substances by chemical reactions is called an element.

For Example : Iron, hydrogen, helium, oxygen ,phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, bromine, gold, silver, mercury, aluminium etc.

Every element is represented by symbol. All the elements have separate symbols. No two elements can have same symbol. A symbol is the short hand representation of an element.

For Example :

Hydrogen-H

Magnesium-Mg

Nitrogen-N

Carbon-C

The smallest particle of an element is called atom. An element is a substance which is made up of only one kind of atom. Different elements are made up of only one kind of atom.

For Example : Sulphur element is made up of only sulphur atoms, iron element is made up of  only iron atom etc.

There are 92 naturally occurring elements known to us at present.

All the elements can be divided into 2 main groups:

(1) Metals

(2) Non-metals

Properties of metals are opposite to those of non-metals.