This book is about the 18th column of the periodic table of the elements, better known as the noble gases. Now, even though my book has these colorful pictures of blue, green, red, orange, peach, and purple, the noble gases are, in fact, colorless. That’s right. 5 of the six noble gases are (radon has a very different formation from the others) colorless. So how does my book have these colorful images for noble gases?

Well, it is because of electrons. The electrons in the noble gases are excited when put in a spectrum discharge tube, and so these colors are formed from their “excitement”. So why are the images of the atomic symbols? Well, you can do anything with discharge tubes filled with noble gases (you can even make a giant Spinosaurus). However, because of this ability, many tables often purposely exclude the atomic symbol on the top, as they do with all the other elements (even radon). Well, if they had put it in there, it would look like this: He He 2, or Ne Ne 10, or Ar Ar 18, or Kr Kr 36, and Xe Xe 54.

Well, here is a quick noble gas fact: They are the only group in the periodic table with an element beginning with the letter X. X for xenon, that is. Also, it seems like poor radon gets excluded from everything. It does not have it’s own discharge tube, it’s own special discharge color, and a use in technology. However, it has something that would make helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon shudder – radioactivity.

All of Radon’s isotopes are completely radioactive. It is also the last noble gas. Radon is formed as a radioactive product of two elements, uranium and thorium.

Well, that, however, ends the noble gases. But it does not end group 18. Here we comes to Ununoctium (from Latin uno- (one) and octos (eight).) What I find sad about four of the elements in the periodic table (ununtrium, ununpentium, ununseptium, and ununoctium), is that they all begin with unun. I mean, after a while, it gets pretty boring to keep calling elements like that. (However, this is nothing compared to the undiscovered elements. Elements 119 to 184 all begin with unun!)

From the brilliant colors of neon, argon, krypton, helium, and xenon to radioactive radon, the noble gases are an amazing group. (Did I forget to mention that excluding hydrogen, they are the only group in the entire periodic table composed of only gas elements?).

You can download the book here: Noble Gases