Past paper questions 1. Final Examination 2019, Question 15
The periodic table was developed by Dmitri Mendeleev. It was published 150 years ago in 1869. To celebrate the International Year of the Periodic Table, the European Chemical Society has designed a new kind of periodic table called the ‘90 Elements that make up everything’.
Availability seriously threatened in the next 100 years
:Fig. 24.10
The table has been drawn so that the area occupied by each element indicates how much of that element is in the Earth’s crust and atmosphere.
a. From the table, identify a gas which is a component of the Earth’s atmosphere, and which is in plentiful supply.
b. Why should the use of the gas helium (He) in birthday balloons be avoided?
c. The element indium (In) is used in smartphones. At current usage rates, indium will be used up in 50 years. Suggest one way humans could contribute to sustaining levels of this element for future generations.
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