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April 14, 2008
Fifteen Minutes Shot
Posted by Derek
If today's post didn't waste enough of your time, here's another way to carve something out of the economy: name all the elements, in any order but correctly spelled, in fifteen minutes.
I scored a 97 - forgot some of the more recently-named transition metals, and I didn't even bother with the placeholder names for 112 and up. Enjoy - and if you score higher than I did, don't forget to note that fact in the comments. Not that I have to tell anyone. . .
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1. cookingwithsolvents on April 14, 2008 8:23 AM writes...
89 in 8 mins 9 seconds b/c I gave up trying to spell some of the Lanthanide/Actinide elements.
Like....Praseody[b]M[/b]ium? grrrr...
Permalink to Comment2. anon on April 14, 2008 8:38 AM writes...
Tom Lehrer could do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNfx0FO4hzs
Permalink to Comment3. anon on April 14, 2008 9:30 AM writes...
79. Blanked on some common ones: arsenic, cadmium
Permalink to Comment4. Sleepless in SSF on April 14, 2008 10:47 AM writes...
I am too embarrassed to repeat my score. Suffice it to say, I missed cesium, barium, two of the noble gases, several of the transition metals and all of the lanthanides except lanthanum (which I couldn't spell). I fear for my cognitive functions; is this what Alzheimer's feels like? I can't help but think that this is the legacy of spending all my time working in protein biochemistry over the past 10 years -- the only elements that exist are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus and occasionally selenium. Ack!
Permalink to Comment5. Bruce Grant on April 14, 2008 12:53 PM writes...
Tickled that someone other than this old fossil remembered Tom Lehrer's wonderful "The Elements" (sung to the tune of "Modern Major General"). Here's an even niftier video of it...
Permalink to Comment6. Bruce Grant on April 14, 2008 12:56 PM writes...
oops...
*Here's* the link...
http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html
Permalink to Comment7. Ron on April 14, 2008 1:12 PM writes...
Scored an 89. The only non-f-block elements I missed were the recently named transition metals, bismuth, and thallium. Missed a lot of the f-block metals, though.
Permalink to Comment8. Fred on April 14, 2008 1:19 PM writes...
Well, that certainly defines geek.
Permalink to Comment9. Yttrai on April 14, 2008 2:55 PM writes...
I didn't do so hot (87) but, shockingly enough, i got Yttrium, Ytterbium, Erbium, and Terbium. Also Gadolinium, which makes sense if you know why i got the four listed above.
Does that qualify me as geekiest username yet?
:D
Permalink to Comment10. syregnask on April 14, 2008 3:07 PM writes...
110 of 111 attempted in 12:27 - I misspelled beryllium (as berylium).
Permalink to Comment11. Greg Hlatky on April 14, 2008 6:47 PM writes...
Mnemonic for the lanthanides:
Caesar pays no poor soldiers except Gauls that defeated his earnest though youthful legions.
Mnemonic for the actinides:
The poor urchins never purloin apples cultivated by crafty escapees from medieval noble lords.
Permalink to Comment12. Sili on April 14, 2008 7:20 PM writes...
I got a laughable 87. Most of those from randomly guessing at lanthanides and actinides - it helped when I realised I didn't have to *place* them ...
Still - I missed: Strontium, Zirconium, Niobium, Molybdenum, Antimony, Barium, Iridium (soooo annoying to know there's a precious metal missing, but not being able to recall the name), HYDRAGYRUM!, BISMUTH!!, promethium, samarium, Europium *rolls eyes*, Gadolinium, Dysprosium, Holmium, Berkeium (okay I had to look up the spelling of that one), Californium, Fermium, Mendelyevium, Nobelium (and to think I was grabbling for physicists to smack -ium on ...), Dubnium, Hassium (odd, I was sure I'd tried that).
Darmstadtium and Röntgenium, I couldn't even do from the two letters.
I really shoulda done ununbisium and upwards - easy points, stupid to miss.
Permalink to Comment13. Jose on April 14, 2008 10:19 PM writes...
Don't forget Columbium, Wolfram, eke-Silicon and eke-Boron....
Permalink to Comment14. Rich Rostrom on April 15, 2008 2:37 AM writes...
97 exactly. I missed all but one of the a.n. 104+ synthetics (and had one that doesn't exist); I missed seven of the natural elements (Magnesium, Silicon, Manganese, Rubidium, Strontium, Promethium, Europium).
I of course had Tom Lehrer's song running through my mind; it helped quite a bit.
Permalink to Comment15. Jordan on April 16, 2008 12:47 PM writes...
I got 102 of them in about 10 minutes. I blanked on element 102 and on a bunch of the later lanthanides and nearly missed radium. I didn't bother with a lot of the new elements -- I figure that if you can't make more than 1 mg at a time, it's not worth memorizing.
Permalink to Comment16. Ryan on April 18, 2008 1:08 AM writes...
114. I forgot Seaborgium, couldn't figure out Ununquadium, and never knew Darmstadium or Roentgenium. (Not too long ago I set about memorizing the whole table...)
Permalink to Comment17. Dell on April 25, 2008 5:04 AM writes...
116, missing Roentgenium and Hassium.
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