Hydrogen

[arkvoodle]

Seeing as there wasn't one of these before, I decided to start up some conversation among those of you/us who like chemistry.

Look at the periodic table. Look at the first row, top element. H, for Hydrogen. Hydrogen follows the allignment (1). That is, one electron on the outer shell. Hydrogen only has one shell, so it only has one electron in total.

The groups in which elements are sorted depends on how many electrons there are in the outermost shell. Hydrogen, having only one electron naturally fits into Group 1. Though, there is a problem here. Group 1 consists of Alkaline Metals. Hydrogen is a gas.

Now, moving over to Group 8, the Noble Gases, which are gases with complete outer shells, it would be logical to assume that hydrogen, having a full shell (technically, as it is a diatomic molecule, so it travels in pairs with itself, making a full outer shell of 2 electrons), and being a gas opposed to an alkaline metal as in group one, it is natural to assume that it would fit into that category.

Brain melted for those not familiar with chemistry?

Summary:

Electrons have "rings" so to say. Each ring can hold a certain amount of electrons.
The first ring holds 2 electrons. All the next ones will hold 8. A full outer shell is when it has no more space for electrons in that shell. Got it so far?

The periodic table is sorted into groups and periods. For now, focus on the groups.

An element fits into a group depending on how many electrons there are in the outer shell. Group 1 will have 1 electron in their outer shell. Group 2 will have 2 and so on.

A diatomic molecule is one that travels in pairs to get full outer shells. Examples being Hydrogen and Oxygen.
~~~

Returning to what I was saying before. Hydrogen is both a group one, and a group eight element. Question being, which group do you think it should rightly belong in?

Group one are alkaline metals. Group 8 are noble gases. key words being metals and gases.

The only problem with hydrogen being in group 8 is that the diatomic nature is not exactly counted, so it must fit into group one along with the metals, which is completely against the nature of the periodic table, which is why most people leave hydrogen out on it's own. Forever Alone hydrogen.

Though if you had to sort it for some reason, where would you put it and why?

 

[Emma]

Well, first off, the periodic table is a purely human construct. Nature does not care in the slightest what we do with it. It is just something we came up with. Say we go and find a row of new elements, it's doubtful they'll fit nicely into our table. Look at the two rows we had to take out below, they didn't fit in at all. As said, it's a purely human construct. It was unlikely that it'd be perfect. I don't think Hydrogen really fits into either group. It's kind of an oddball, like Uranium. It doesn't really fit anywhere. Why would one gas get to be grouped based on its diatomic state and not the others?

I'd almost suggest just removing it from the main part of the table and just placing it in a box on its own above it. All the table is, is a table of pattern recognition. Not all elements fall into this pattern. Some ignore it completely. Chemistry's fascinating. but organizing elements into the periodic table is annoying. Some groups have their own patterns, some have none. It's what happens when you try to bring order out of chaos. Your efforts will only be partially-successful at best.

 

[Xinnamin]

Okay, the periodic table is organized mostly via electron configuration. It just so happens that, due to the nature of how electrons organize themselves, that groups on the periodic table tend to have the same chemical properties. Hydrogen is a group one atom because it has one valence electron, not because it is an alkali metal (which it is not, but that doesn't matter). It is placed there mostly for convenience. It cannot be placed in group eight as a noble gas because noble gases are monatomic, not diatomic. By your diatomic logic, any diatomic element would be a noble gas because the diatomic structure fills up the electron shells of both atoms involved in all cases.

Either way, I fail to see why it matters or make a difference when the periodic table of elements is simply an organizational chart for scientists' convenience.

Also, moved to GD since this isn't a political, social, or ethical topic.

 

[Kybyrian]

Hydrogen is not a noble gas. Noble gases have full outer shells, which means that the Noble Gases are in a "perfect" state of having 8 valence electrons. Hydrogen is not a noble gas because it is governed by the octet rule, stating that it bonds with other atoms in order to obtain a full set of 8 valence electrons (though Hydrogen only needs 2... thus bonding with Hydrogen).

The periodic table is not really grouped by what type of element they are. Technically, Helium belongs on the left side because it only has 2 valence electrons. However, since the first energy level of an atom only has 2 electrons, it's also a noble gas because the outer energy level is full. Orbitals also come into play. If you were showing the electron configuration of Hydrogen, it would be 1s^1. Likewise, the element directly below would be 1s^2 2s^1. Going over crossing it into the p orbital, which changes things completely.

 

[Wolf Sage]

Well, it has its own unique properties - perhaps enough to warrant a little box all its own...or something. It's not a metal and its electron affinity would place it elsewhere on the periodic table. However, there are other elements whose other properties would place them elsewhere on the periodic table when one takes said properties into consideration. For instance there are believed to be several groups on which Helium could be placed. It seems, though, that Hydrogen might be the most unique in that regard. Apparently, it doesn't exactly fit anywhere on the periodic table that would be of convenience to scientists or else they would have moved it ages ago. The Periodic Table of Elements has gone through several revisions and alternate versions still exist to this very day, albeit uncommon.

 

[Ventus]

Hydrogen is not a noble gas because it is governed by the octet rule

Hydrogen is governed by the duet rule, not the octet.

I'd leave it alone in that upper left corner as is custom to do so. As Kybyrian noted, Hydrogen is not a noble gas due to not being in a perfect state of 8 valence electrons. Besides the obvious reasons, Hydrogen only has 1 electron anyway and thus should be at the top left, for convenience sake. It helps high school chemistry students such as myself remember the elements quicker than any other method. It helps actual chemists, too, though in what ways I know not.

Verdict: leave it alone in the upper left corner.

 

[sweetcoop]

In terms of Hydrogen, it is generally put in the upper lefthand corner, but in can be placed anywhere in the first row except for where helium is. If you look at some periodic tables there is actually a thin line that separates hydrogen from the first column.