My chemistry teacher didn't make us memorize it, but I managed to do so on my own one very, very long day in 10th grade when I had in-school suspension for forgetting my gym clothes twice. None of my teachers belived the ISS notice, so no one sent me any assignments. There is nothing like sitting in a room full of hardcore juvenile deliquents with all your honors textbooks and nothing to do.
I memorised the whole table as a schoolboy, not because I was required to but as a rabid chemistry geek even at a very young age I thought that it would be a cool thing to do. I don't believe that it came in useful once during my chemistry degree or subsequent career except for being able to rattle it off at high speed as a party trick in the bar. Oddly I can still recite from memory the table that I learnt some 25 years ago but try as I might I can never remember the elements that have been added subsequently ie. everything trans-lawrencium
So, when I was in high school and learned that every element had a different number of protons and what not, I had this idea that you would be able to change what the element was if you could only somehow effect the number of protons in something. Like, say silver has 47 and gold has 79, if you "injected" 32 protons, would it become gold? Theoretically, is there any way to change the composition of something to make it something else?
I mad this anonymous in case this is so dumb of a question that it's like asking if Santa Claus is real.
The question isn't dumb at all, in fact you're absolutely right. Since the number of protons is what "defines" an element, if you lose and/or gain a proton...yep, you're another element.
This happens all the time in radioactive decay. When radioactive elements lose an alpha particle (that's one electron and one proton) they become the next element down and so on and so forth until they hit lead, with is the first non-radioactive element, so it won't decay any further.
But "injecting protons" is not as easy as it sounds. Smashing atoms together to make larger ones is the kind of thing that only happens in the interior of stars. Not recommended for home experimentation.
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I mad this anonymous in case this is so dumb of a question that it's like asking if Santa Claus is real.
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This happens all the time in radioactive decay. When radioactive elements lose an alpha particle (that's one electron and one proton) they become the next element down and so on and so forth until they hit lead, with is the first non-radioactive element, so it won't decay any further.
But "injecting protons" is not as easy as it sounds. Smashing atoms together to make larger ones is the kind of thing that only happens in the interior of stars. Not recommended for home experimentation.
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