Noble Gases

Noble gas elements

• Helium (He)
• Neon (Ne)
• Argon (Ar)
• Krypton (Kr)
• Xenon (Xe)

Facts

• Because Helium is non-flammable, it is much safer to use in balloons instead of hydrogen.
• Helium has the lowest melting and boiling point of any other substance.
• Neon signs do not just use neon gas, but also a mixture of different noble gases and other elements to create bright lights of different colors.

Real World

• Noble gases are used in the arc welding industry.
• Argon is used to fill light bulbs because it does not react with the metal at high temperatures.
• Helium is used to inflate the tires of large aircraft such as planes.
• Argon is also used in electric arc welding of metals as a shielding gas, to produce an inert atmosphere.
• Helium is used for diluting the pure oxygen in deep-sea diving tanks because the helium has a low solubility in human blood.

Helium

Physical CHARACTERISTICS

• Unreactive
• Colorless
• Odorless
• Tasteless
• Non - toxic
• Gas

Helium

• Atomic number- 2
• Atomic mass- 4.002602
• Non-metal
• Density- 0.179 g/L
• Helium balloons also work by the law of buoyancy. As long as the weight of the helium plus the balloon fabric is lighter than the air it displaces, the balloon will float in the air. It turns out that helium is a lot lighter than air. Helium floats

Real World

• Helium is used as a cooling medium for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), and the superconducting magnets in MRI scanners and NMR spectrometers.
• Helium is also used to keep satellite instruments cool and was used to cool the liquid oxygen and hydrogen that powered the Apollo space vehicles.
• Helium is used as an inert shield for arc welding, to pressurize the fuel tanks of liquid fueled rockets and in supersonic windtunnels.

Facts

• The word helium comes from the Greek word meaning sun (helios). It was named by Lockyer and English chemist Edward Frankland.
• The USA is the world’s largest supplier of helium, with many reserves found in large natural gas fields.
• The balloon boy hoax from October 15, 2009 led people to believe that a six year old boy had floated away in a home made helium balloon when in fact he was hiding at his house the whole time.

Historical facts

• Helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, was discovered on the sun before it was found on the earth. Pierre-Jules-César Janssen, a French astronomer, noticed a yellow line in the sun's spectrum while studying a total solar eclipse in 1868.
• Helium was discovered in 1895
• The name Helium is derived from the Greek, 'helios' meaning sun, as it was in the sun's corona that helium was first detected.

Bibliography

• http://www.chem4kids.com/files/elem_noblegas.html
• https://www.sciencedaily.com/terms/noble_gas.htm
• https://www.thoughtco.com/why-noble-gases-are-called-noble-608603
• https://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele002.html

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