Bob Maslyn, age 12, of Rochester, N.
What is argon?
Argon is one of the basic chemical elements and therefore part of the fabulous story of chemistry. It flung, you might say, two irresistible challenges to the world of science. First, it is by nature a secretive element and certain men of science could not satisfy their curiosity until. it was found. Second, it is by nature a lazy element and certain other minds could not rest until they had found chores for this lazy character to do for us.
This secretive and lazy element is all around us, enfolding everything on the face of the earth. At ordinary temperatures, argon is a gaseous element in the air. In fact.‑it‑makes up almost one pier cent of the atmosphere, which means that we are surrounded by billions of tons of it. Yet a hundred years ago, no one knew it existed. It was discovered in 1894, long after science proved that air is composed of 99 per cent nitrogen and oxygen.
Argon and all the gases of the air are invisible, odorless and tasteless. But, like the metallic elements copper, silver and gold, they are also different from each other. Oxygen was discovered early because it is a busy element. It supports fire and life and joins with other elements to form compounds. Argon does nothing to give itself away and when it was found it was named from a Greek word meaning the lazy one.
The chemist’s symbol for old lazybones is A and we find it in the same column on the Periodic Table of elements with helium, neon, krypton and xenon. The elements in a period or column all have the same number of electrons in their outer shells, which makes them have certain chemical properties in common. All these gases are lazy because all have complete outer shells.
Oxygen, on the other hand, needs two electrons to complete its outer shell and restlessly seeks them. Its atoms join other elements to share their electrons and in so doing they form compounds such as water, sugar, silica and carbon dioxide.
The atomic number of argon is 18, which means its normal atom has 18 protons in the nucleus and 18 swarming electrons. The inner shell of an atom is complete with two electrons, the second and third with eight. Argon, with its three complete shells, is lazy and aloof from other elements because it does not need to trade or share electrons. It is called an inert or noble gas ‑ and we have put this lofty, lazy one to work. It refuses to aid the burning process, so we put it into light bulbs where we want to stop the tungsten filament from burning. We use it in welding and incandescent lamps and we also force it to work in the lamp of the Geiger counter ‑ just by doing nothing.
Argon is taken from the abundant supplies in the air. Like every other substance, it has its own melting and boiling points. Air is chilled to the liquid state and as it warms, each element becomes a gas at its own boiling point. Argon turns to gas when the chilly liquid nears minus 185 degrees Centigrade.