The Periodic Table Chapter 5 Answers

[Sear Sommerfeldt]

Dmitri Mendeleev proposed the periodic table. He arranged elements in order of their atomic number. It enables him to place the elements in specific rows and columns. The rows were named as periods, and columns were named as groups. It contains seven rows and eighteen columns.

Definition: Periodic Table is an organised collection of elements in order of increasing atomic number. When atoms are arranged in this pattern, elements in the same group have similar properties.

Explanation: k is the first shell in an atom, followed by the l shell, m shell and n shell. The l shell contains 8 electrons, the m shell contains 18 electrons, and the n shell contains 32 electrons.

Answer: If the electronic configuration is known, then the valency of an element is determined by the number of valence electrons present in the outermost shell, i.e. the number of valence electrons lost, gained, or shared by the element to attain the noble gas configuration.

Answer: The position of an element depends upon the number of valence electrons that rely on its electronic configuration. Those elements which have identical valence electrons occupy the same group.

Answer: 1. Atomic radii decrease from Li to F because nuclear charge increases due to increased atomic number. Therefore, the force of attraction between nucleus and valence electrons increases. Hence atomic radii decrease from Li to F.

Primo Levi (1919-1987) was born into an assimilated middle-class family in Turin, Italy. His studies were interrupted by the realities of being Jewish in wartime Europe. He left the university where he was studying chemistry to join the Italian Resistance against the Mussolini's fascist government. He was quickly captured by Fascist militia while hiding in the Alps and eventually deported to Auschwitz, where he worked as a slave laborer in a chemical laboratory. Liberated by Soviet troops, he returned to Italy. Levi became the manager of a chemical factory. He also began to write about his experiences.. Many of his books (The Drowned and the Saved, If This Is a Man, The Truce, Survival in Auschwitz: The Nazi Assault on Humanity) have become classics. Primo Levi committed suicide in 1987, after a long illness.

The Periodic Table chronicles the author's life in relationship to the elements of the periodic table. These elements, the tools of his profession, form the nexus of Levi's personal and professional life for it is his work as a chemist in an Auschwitz laboratory that keeps him alive. So while Levi's passion for chemistry can be understood as a person's love for his chosen profession, it is also his salvation.

In The Periodic Table Auschwitz survivor and chemist Primo Levi tells a series of loosely connected tales that are part autobiography and part allegory. Elements of the periodic table inspire Levi's recollections and lead to his revelations.

Each chapter can stand alone, but there is clearly an overall flow to the book, which follows a historical timeline connecting the chapters. This book can be read and discussed chapter by chapter or by grouping. The main themes-purity, religion versus science, science as religion, truth, being an outsider, nature, knowledge, control over nature, freedom, innocence, guilt-run throughout the book. Chapters may be contrasted to one another, and specific themes can be followed from chapter to chapter. The discussion questions that follow are organized by chapter, but many of the questions apply equally to other chapters.

Levi's description of the Jews as a people inert and harmless yet "alien" foretells what is to become of the Jews. He describes the element argon as a rare gas, part of the air we breathe and need to survive but not always noticed or appreciated. In what way does Levi identify with argon? What does the element symbolize about his background?

Levi writes, "If man is a maker, we were not men: We knew this and suffered from it." (p. 24) What do you think he means by this statement? What do you think is the significance of working or not working with one's hands? Why might not working with one's hands be a source of embarrassment?

What was it about chemistry that Levi found so attractive when he was young? What qualities does a person need to possess in order to be a chemist? Is there a connection between Levi's attraction to chemistry and the fact that he is Jewish?

In this chapter Levi introduces a theme that will continue to run throughout the book-that of man's attempt to control nature. Is this a futile or fruitful attempt? What are the dangers of trying to control nature?

Levi writes, "These people, to a greater or lesser degree, tend to transfuse the human substance of their chief into their own mold, as occurs with pseudomorphic crystals: sometimes they suffer from it, often they enjoy it, and they possess two distinct patterns of behavior, depending on whether they act on their own or 'in the exercise of their function.'" (p. 32) How does this statement shed light on Levi's way of looking at people?

While describing his work with zinc, Levi writes, "I am the impurity that makes the zinc react...." (p. 35) Why does he call himself an impurity? What is the relationship between purity and impurity that Levi sees in chemistry? From a scientific point of view, what is good about impurity?

Levi writes, "The Institute's rough and ready morality counted on the process of natural selection to pick out those among us most qualified for physical and professional survival." (p. 39) Why does Levi use this kind of language here? What might his intent be?

How does Levi describe science, or specifically chemistry and physics, in this chapter? What is he saying about the world in which he lived? In what way are the study of chemistry and physics antidotes to Fascism?

Levi describes his friend Sandro on pages 43-45. Why does he use iron as the element that best fits Sandro? In the end, is iron in fact an appropriate element for this friend? Levi writes about needing to prepare themselves for an "iron future." What does he mean by an "iron future"?

The idea of religion vis-a-vis science is also central to this chapter. Part of what Levi describes in this chapter is a spiritual crisis, a crisis of faith that gets played out in mainly scientific terms as he searches for what he calls "sources of certainty." What else might this crisis be about? How are the spiritual and the scientific intertwined in this chapter? How is Levi's ongoing search for Truth impacted by his spiritual/scientific crisis?

How does Levi use irony in this chapter, particularly in regard to the issue of purity? In what way does potassium, especially as it is described in the end of the chapter as the mistrustful "almost-the-same," come to be a metaphor for Levi himself in the face of what is happening in Europe?

In the beginning of this chapter, Levi writes about himself as an outcast. In what ways does that self-perception motivate the work with nickel that he does at the mine? What role does it play in his brief moment of triumph and then in his more sober realization afterward?

This chapter is unusual in the book as a whole for its retelling of the stories about other people. What new truths about people does Levi learn while he is at the mine? The ongoing theme of nature is more dominant in this chapter. Describe Levi's relationship to nature and the natural world.

As Levi himself points out, this chapter is written in a markedly different style. What purpose did this kind of a chapter serve for Levi? As readers, do you find this chapter disruptive to the flow of the book? An interesting diversion? What role does it play in the narrative as a whole?

Levi calls lead the metal of death. What does he mean by this? Why lead, when many of the other elements are lethal? Why death, when for the narrator lead is life-giving and provides him with a good living? Perhaps Levi is making a statement here about people's free choice in using what the earth has to offer. Do you agree?

In the previous story Levi deals with the issue of people's use of the elements, which are in and of themselves neutral but can become agents of death or givers of life, depending on how they are used. In this story how is the issue of control over an element played out?

This chapter deals with contrasts-precision, order, and efficiency versus sloppiness and lack of order; rules versus breaking rules; the rational versus the emotional; and male versus female. What other contrasts do you find?

Levi writes that phosphorous "is not an emotionally neutral element: it was understandable that a Professor Kerrn, half biochemist and half witch doctor, in the environment impregnated with black magic of the Nazi court, had designated it as a medicament." (p. 120) What do you think this passage means?

At the beginning of the chapter, Levi writes, " Each of us did his or her work day by day, slackly, without believing in it, as happens to someone who knows he is not working for his own future." (pp. 128-129) What do you think Levi means by this? Contrast this description with the description of the gold collector whom Levi meets in prison. What does this prisoner represent to Levi?

As Levi himself indicates, he has written extensively on his Auschwitz experience. This chapter does not sum up that period in his life, but rather provides the transition from "before" to "after." Which words does he use to summarize that experience? are repeated in this chapter? To whom or what does Levi credit for his survival?

This is the first chapter in which Levi writes self-consciously about the act of writing. What motivates him to write? How does writing help Levi deal with his wartime experiences? How does love affect his writing and why? Levi refers to the book that he wrote during this period as a "liberating book." (p. 159) What makes writing an act of liberation for Levi?

Levi writes, "The trade of chemist (fortified, in my case, by the experience of Auschwitz) teaches you to overcome, indeed to ignore, certain revulsions that are neither necessary or congenital: matter is matter, neither noble nor vile, infinitely transformable, and its proximate origin is of no importance whatsoever." (pp. 180-181) How would you interpret this statement? What connection is Levi making between his experience as a chemist and his experience as a survivor of Auschwitz? What role can morality and ethics play in such a system?

c80f0f1006