What is your favorite element and explain why?

Answer 1

A selection of answers from our Supervisors

• My favorite element is Cesium. Chuck a little Cesium in a bucket 'o water, stand far back (that is the important part), and let the fun commence.
• I'll go for Element 117, Ununseptium.
• Carbon is a "magic" element. (It's the "life" of the party, and the only basis for life we know of.)
• Silicon is so "plastic" in the things we can do to make semiconductors and other solid state materials out of it that it's unbelievable.
• Helium in its liquid state climbs the sides of its container. How cool - cold! - is that!? (And it never goes solid!)
• Plutonium changes its volume spontaneously, and by an amount that is more than microscopic!
• I just love the applications we put aluminium to. (It's about time we learned to separate this metal. Now if we could just learn to spell it correctly!)
• Iron is the backbone of our civilization. (And the alloy steel is even more amazing, even though we usually take it for granted.)
• And Mercury is so much fun being a liquid at room temperature and being very dense and all. (It's still toxic, in case we might forget it.)
• There's tin and lead, the poor metal twins with which I'm so familiar. (I've soldered away a tonne of them if I've soldered away a gram.
• And mercury is so much fun being a liquid at room temperature and being very dense and all. (It's still toxic, in case we might forget it.)
• By the way, what's up with technetium? No stable isotopes anywhere? (Has anyone looked between the couch cushions?)
• Fluorine is the hungry wolf of the Periodic Table. Gotta respect that. (If fluorine can't "eat" it, it pretty much can't be eaten.)
• Is it osmium or iridium, the Period 6 duo, that is most dense? (It was fun to watch this being sorted out over the years.)
• It's got to be AU........ Gold, I'm just a little nugget waiting to be found, aahhhh! ............. by anyone except the woman formally known as the wife that is!
• Carbon! Basis of all life, and the graphite in your pencil, and the diamond in your ring is the same stuff!!! Too weird.
• I am Magnesium. (Mg12). I am tough in form and rugged by forge, but explosive in the right element with my anger burning bright, but once expended, I am extinguished quickly, as if nothing went wrong. Then, I am back to rugged!
• Pt - Platinum, baby! So shiny..
• Lets not forget the big O.. without Oxygen none of you would be answering this question
• I like Hydrogen too. It's a multitasker, it's the most abundant element in the universe.
• Silver; not as sought out as Gold or Platinum, but just as loved - well, I like Silver....
• But if it's an element that I like the sound of, then Ununquadium's for me
• My favourite element is actually francium. After looking at what all the alkali metals would do, like what AreaBlue222 said about caesium exploding in water, I would really look forward to what francium will bring us. A scientist once said: "There is only about less than 10g of francium existant in its pure form every second, here it is, and the next second it's gone.
• I, too, like Platinum (must be my fav) followed by Silver. I like Gold as well, but only when it is white gold (yellow gold is SO ugly to me!). So, while I'm not usually your typical girly-girl, I guess in this case I would since I chose those LOL
• I also like Carbon. I'm an artist and it's in most of my art supplies, yes. Oh, yeah, and diamonds (another girly-girl attribute there).
• Wow! You guys really thought hard! Without thinking too hard I would have to say helium... Hey wuts up guys! I can hardly talk at all. Can you hear me? CAN YOU HEAR ME!!! I'm Alvin and the chipmunks
• Personally I just couldn't get through the day without Oxygen......
• Francium. I just love the fact a) It's the most explosive alkali metal and b) Is illegal to make via nuclear reaction
• Oxygen would be at the top of my list. Without it we can't survive. Second would be gold. "Who doesn't like gold? We all need a little bling-bling".
• Lithium. It was either that or ..... the element of surprise (a supers medical joke)
• I'm also a waterbaby. What I mean by this is that I absolutely love water. When I feel so sick that I just want to die, I go soak in the tub and I magically feel better. I enjoy the rain, I enjoy water puddles (yes I will still stomp in them from time to time heh) and so on. Since H2O is not an element itself, I have to say that Hydrogen and Oxygen are also good ones
• And Helium is a funny one (think swallowing Helium from balloons - funny voices).
• Silicon is both a common (on earth) and special compound (think most gem stones).
• didn't have to think on this one either... hands down, voice up... it's helium.

  Second would be iron. I used to love pumping it.

• Hmm, Aren't at least some of the ingredients in Alka Seltzer one of the "elements"? Sodium bicarbonate, for example. Or is that Na, or Na+ (it's been a long time since school) bicarbonate? Yes, that's my favorite element. Without Alka Seltzer, I would suffer many long, sleepless and uncomfortable nights.
• Hmmm... Neon for its brilliant implications, carbon for a myriad of reasons, titanium is a strong contender, molybdenum is a pronounced leader, and I thought this would be elementary...
• Hu. The Human element, combines with all the others, and can form, inspiration, imagination, invention, compassion, and an endless number of other essential elements to our lives.
• Einstineum
• Governmentium. Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neuron, 25 assistant neurons, 88 deputy neurons, and 198 assistant deputy neurons, giving it an Atomic Mass of 312.
• Platinum all the way ! So rare and so shiny