Did you know that when you are breathing, you are breathing elements? The air you breathe is made up of many elements, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. Elements are everywhere. They are the building blocks of everything on earth: your dog, the mountains, your car, your eyes, and yes, even beer.

In this blog post, we will discuss what an element is, how elements are written as symbols, and how they are the building blocks of all matter. An element is a kind of pure substance that cannot be broken down by chemical methods into simpler components.

For example, the element gold cannot be conked out into anything. Other than gold, if you keep hitting gold with a hammer, the pieces will get smaller, but each piece will always be gold. You can think of each kind of element as having its own unique fingerprint, making it different from the other elements.

Elements consist of only one type of atom. An atom is the smallest particle of an element that still has the same properties as that element. All atoms of a specific element have the same chemical makeup, size, and mass.

There are 118 elements in total, along with helium and hydrogen, the most abundant elements on Earth. Many elements occur naturally on earth; however, some are created in the laboratory by scientists through nuclear processes instead of writing. The whole elemental name is often written as a symbol.

For example, O is a symbol for oxygen, C is a symbol for carbon, and N is a symbol for nitrogen.

Now all elements have just one letter, a symbol, but have two letters, like Al, which is a symbol for aluminum, and I, which is a symbol for Ni. The first letter is always capitalized, but the second letter is not. Simple names do not always match the letters in the elemental name. For example, Fe is a symbol of iron. Au is the symbol for gold. These symbol names are derived from Latin names.

Pure Element Examples

Each element is regarded as a pure element because it is not assorted with any other elements. Each element is characterized by a standard symbol shown here in parentheses.

Some of the most common elements are:

Hydrogen (H) – nonmetal

Helium (He) – nonmetal

Oxygen (O) – nonmetal

Neon (Ne) – nonmetal

Nitrogen (N) – nonmetal

Carbon (C) – reactive nonmetal

Silicon (Si) – metalloid

Magnesium (Mg) is an alkaline earth metal

Iron (Fe): transition metal

Sulfur (S) – reactive nonmetal

Examples of Elements on the Periodic Table

Examples of Alkali Metal Elements

Alkali metals are a union of metals that possess only one electron and only occur in nature as compounds.

Francium (Fr)

Lithium (Li)

Potassium (K)

Sodium (Na)

Rubidium (Rb)

Cesium (Cs)

Examples of Alkaline Earth Metal Elements

Alkaline earth metals are a kind of metal that all exist in nature and are shiny.

Beryllium (Be)

Magnesium (Mg)

Calcium (Ca)

Strontium (Sr)

Barium (Ba)

Radium (Ra)

Examples of Transition Metal Elements

Transition metals are a group of metals “whose atoms have a partially filled D subshell, or which can quote with incomplete D subsets.”

Chromium (Cr)

Cobalt (Co)

Dubnium (Db)

Hafnium (Hf)

Manganese (Mn)

Molybdenum (Mo)

Niobium (Nb)

Nickel (Ni)

Rutherfordium (Rf)

Seaborgium (Sg)

Tantalum (Ta)

Titanium (Ti)

Tungsten (W)

Vanadium (V)

Zirconium (Zr)

Examples of Nonmetal Elements

Nonmetals are mostly dull, not malleable, not conductive, and not magnetic. Nonmetals are split up into two categories: reactive nonmetals and noble gases.

Fluorine (F)

Bromine (Br)

Chlorine (Cl)

Iodine (I)

Phosphorus (P)

Selenium (Se)

Examples of Noble Gases

The noble gases are also called inert gases and belong to the nonmetals group. They are all odorless and colorless gases. These four are all commonly existing noble gases, along with helium and neon.

Argon (Ar)

Krypton (Kr)

Radon (Rn)

Xenon (Xe)

Conclusion

If you have any questions regarding elements or examples of elements, then please let us know in the comments section.