Does anyone know a fun or easy way to memorize the 1st 20 elements on the P.T.E

[Crazyday]

As others have said, after working with the stuff for a while it just kind of burns itself into your mind.

I describe chemistry as something like algebra. When you first get to it, it is something completely different from anything you've ever learned or heard of. But the elements are like the variables/numbers in their own right. Eventually you just know it, similar to how eventually you just know algebra.

My Gen Chem class sophomore year made us memorize some of the elements. Of course you just forget most of them right after the test. My Adv. Chem class didn't make us do that, though. Much better teacher in the Adv. Chem., although his tests were real ball busters.

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[Future Doc1]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that iron, copper, zinc, technetium, iodine, cesium, and barium (to name a few) are ions fairly relevant to medicine.

I think we have to remember some extra elements and most of those
are the extra ones.

 

[Maygyver]

Get a periodic table and just tape it to the wall near where you usually are. By the end of gen chem I had memorized pretty much all the elements #s and masses too. For the most part, just brute practice will get it done. For gen chem we had to memorize up til like 100 or something. The way I did it was pretty much just going in order over and over. Just say the symbols to make it go faster and then go back over and make sure you understand what each symbol is. In short though, practice, practice, practice.

 

[greatnt249]

Get a periodic table and just tape it to the wall near where you usually are. By the end of gen chem I had memorized pretty much all the elements #s and masses too. For the most part, just brute practice will get it done. For gen chem we had to memorize up til like 100 or something. The way I did it was pretty much just going in order over and over. Just say the symbols to make it go faster and then go back over and make sure you understand what each symbol is. In short though, practice, practice, practice.

Not gonna lie, but every time I see someone post that their profs required them to memorize the elements of the periodic table, I just can't help but wonder how that time could be better spent actually focusing on learning the basics of chemistry. Familiarity with the periodic table comes with learning the chemistry; memorizing the periodic table out of context doesn't serve any useful purpose that I can think of.

 

[Maygyver]

Not gonna lie, but every time I see someone post that their profs required them to memorize the elements of the periodic table, I just can't help but wonder how that time could be better spent actually focusing on learning the basics of chemistry. Familiarity with the periodic table comes with learning the chemistry; memorizing the periodic table out of context doesn't serve any useful purpose that I can think of.

Yeah, it was pretty useless. Luckily it wasn't really used for exam material, just for like a first quiz.

 

[CScull]

Yeah, it was pretty useless. Luckily it wasn't really used for exam material, just for like a first quiz.

I remember that we had to memorize certain properties of elements in their groups... like we would get a question about: "What makes up 78% of the earth's atmosphere?" and we would have to know it was nitrogen. We'd get a bunch of facts and six or seven elements... it's a little more useful than memorizing atomic numbers... and you're never going to find it written on the periodic table that gold is very malleable.

 

[Crazyday]

That sounds very useless CScull. When would you ever use that in chemistry? Or probably anywhere (maybe earth science...) for that matter? Chemistry deals with things on an atomic level for the most part. If I had to memorize little factoids I'd much rather memorize relevant information (what is the first ionization energy for nitrogen?) to the course and what I'm doing than completely useless facts I'll never use and thus quickly forget.

The only thing that would be useful is knowing the names of the more common elements (which isn't too difficult as most are pretty self-explanatory), and trends on the periodic table. You should know what the halogens, noble gases, alkaline metals, nonmetals, etc. are and where they are on the table, and what makes them different. You should know how to tell the electron configuration and number of valence shell electrons.

If you can read the periodic table for that information, then you don't really need to memorize anything. After working with it for a few weeks in the class you'll have memorized most of the important information just through working with it. Teachers that force you to sit down and memorize it early are just wasting time and effort that could be better used reviewing/teaching basics of chemistry while letting you use a periodic table.

Now, what would be useful to memorize before the course is the polyatomic ions. Periodic tables usually don't have them, and if you don't work with them enough, you won't memorize them through work. And, imo, it was kind of hard to work with them if you didn't have them memorized in the first place.

 

[CScull]

That sounds very useless CScull. When would you ever use that in chemistry? Or probably anywhere (maybe earth science...) for that matter? Chemistry deals with things on an atomic level for the most part. If I had to memorize little factoids I'd much rather memorize relevant information (what is the first ionization energy for nitrogen?) to the course and what I'm doing than completely useless facts I'll never use and thus quickly forget.

Maybe it sounds useless but knowing some basic properties of an element can help one determine what your "unknown" is, or at least what it isn't, without having to use balances, or determining boiling points, or working out it's solubility. For instance, in lab the other day we could determine which of our samples contained copper because their aqueous solutions were blue, while all the others where clear. It really helps when you have seven "unknowns" and you already know what two of them are and how they'll react with the other solutions... sure you could work out the formula's and balance their equations and spend an hour toiling over it, but it's so much easier when you have more knowledge on a compound than just it's formula.

 

[Maygyver]

That sounds very useless CScull. When would you ever use that in chemistry? Or probably anywhere (maybe earth science...) for that matter? Chemistry deals with things on an atomic level for the most part. If I had to memorize little factoids I'd much rather memorize relevant information (what is the first ionization energy for nitrogen?) to the course and what I'm doing than completely useless facts I'll never use and thus quickly forget.

The only thing that would be useful is knowing the names of the more common elements (which isn't too difficult as most are pretty self-explanatory), and trends on the periodic table. You should know what the halogens, noble gases, alkaline metals, nonmetals, etc. are and where they are on the table, and what makes them different. You should know how to tell the electron configuration and number of valence shell electrons.

If you can read the periodic table for that information, then you don't really need to memorize anything. After working with it for a few weeks in the class you'll have memorized most of the important information just through working with it. Teachers that force you to sit down and memorize it early are just wasting time and effort that could be better used reviewing/teaching basics of chemistry while letting you use a periodic table.

Now, what would be useful to memorize before the course is the ionic particles. Periodic tables usually don't have them, and if you don't work with them enough, you won't memorize them through work. And, imo, it was kind of hard to work with them if you didn't have them memorized in the first place.

That stuff is kind of useless, but I find it is just interesting to know as general scientific knowledge.

What do you mean by "memorize ionic particles"

 

[Crazyday]

Like ammonium, sulfate, sulfite, nitrate, acetate, etc.; what their formulas and charges are, since those aren't very self-explanatory and aren't found on most periodic tables.

 

[Maygyver]

Like ammonium, sulfate, sulfite, nitrate, acetate, etc.; what their formulas and charges are, since those aren't very self-explanatory and aren't found on most periodic tables.

Ahh, yeah. That would make much more sense. It's silly how some things are taught. I mean, you do memorize those as you work with them, but it makes to have you memorize those over summer rather than elements lol

 

[Future Doc1]

Maybe it sounds useless but knowing some basic properties of an element can help one determine what your "unknown" is, or at least what it isn't, without having to use balances, or determining boiling points, or working out it's solubility. For instance, in lab the other day we could determine which of our samples contained copper because their aqueous solutions were blue, while all the others where clear. It really helps when you have seven "unknowns" and you already know what two of them are and how they'll react with the other solutions... sure you could work out the formula's and balance their equations and spend an hour toiling over it, but it's so much easier when you have more knowledge on a compound than just it's formula.

sounds legit