Periodic Table Gets Three New Lab Created Elements

The thing I hated most in high school was learning the periodic table. Remembering all those elements and their symbols was not a good time. The students that are having to learn the periodic tablet today have three new elements they need to memorize. These new elements are all super heavy and can only be lab created.

The three new elements are 110, 111, and 112. The elements are darmstadtium (Ds), roentgenium (Rg), and copernicium (Cn). The elements are large and unstable. That instability means that they break down quickly into other elements. Apparently, the names of the elements were chosen by consulting with physicists around the world.

Copernicium was discovered in 1996 in Germany when zinc and lead were smashed together. The name comes from a Prussian astronomer that died in 1543. Roentgenium was discovered in 1994 and was named after German physicist Conrad Roentgen. The same folks that discovered the Roentgentium discovered Darmstadtium. Darmstadtium was discovered in 1994 and named after the city Darmstadt where the GSI Helmholtz Centre is located.

[via Telegraph]