Laura: Hello and welcome to Lex Education, the brand new podcast from comedian, author, star of Live at the Apollo, Mock The Week, Hypothetical, and Roast Battle, Laura Lexx and her brother Ron.
Ron: Hello I'm Ron.
Laura: In our brand new podcast adventure, science fan Ron tries to teach me, comedy queen Laura, enough science to pass a triple GCSE with limited success. Each week, Ron and I will focus on one of the different science topics, alternating between biology, chemistry and physics. Each episode will feature one lesson and one quiz. However, the twist is that even though you will just hear a jingle between the lesson and the quiz, we will have lived a whole week in the real world.That way we really see what's stuck in my brain.
Laura: Ron the listeners came back.
Ron: Welcome home, everyone.
Laura: That is so creepy.
Laura: Welcome home.
Laura: The home in your ears.
Laura: That's like a school about science.
Laura: Anyway, thank you so much for all your love and affection on The Socials.
Laura: If you are enjoying listening, do give us a follow on Twitter and stuff like that.
Laura: And we want to give a big shout out to Podspike who have really helped us launch this podcast.
Laura: They made all of the little images that we've been putting our sexy, cool, fun science facts onto that you've probably seen on the Twitter and the Instagram, and they've really helped us learn how to be engaging on social media about a podcast before it's out.
Ron: They kind of told us that we needed to post stuff and we needed to post content that people would want to see.
Laura: Yeah, so if you need any advice on launching a podcast, honestly, we can't say expressively enough how lovely the people at Pods buy a car and how much they've helped us out.
Laura: So do head over and cheque them out.
Laura: So that's your learning.
Laura: But now it's time for me to learn.
Laura: How are you doing, Ron?
Ron: Yeah, not bad.
Ron: Very stressed.
Laura: Why are you stressed, Ronnie honks?
Ron: Because we're doing this podcast today.
Ron: We're also playing Dungeons and Dragons with our other siblings later on, which I'm DMing for.
Ron: And I've had a friend staying for the last couple of days, so I just haven't been able to do any of it.
Ron: And then also had yesterday off work and then had to catch up with that today.
Laura: That is a busy day.
Laura: I'm sorry your life sucks.
Ron: No, it's okay.
Ron: It's still pretty good.
Laura: Do you find it stressful, the thought of teaching me science?
Ron: I had to do a lot of research because not a lot of the content today is actually in the syllabus.
Laura: What?
Laura: What do you mean?
Laura: Why are we learning it if it's not in the silhouette?
Ron: Because I got really angry while I was researching it.
Ron: For reasons we'll talk about later, I decided to go into extra detail on some stuff.
Laura: Ron, I just don't know if that's the sensible approach to getting me to learn this.
Laura: We all heard how badly I did at the quiz at the end of the previous episode.
Laura: Rye honks.
Laura: Last week we learned all about cells and cell structure.
Laura: What are we doing today?
Ron: So today we're going to learn a bit about the periodic table.
Ron: We're going to learn just a little bit about atoms and elements in general, and then we're going to learn a lot about the history of atoms.
Laura: Is the history of atoms the bit that I don't need to know?
Ron: Well, it depends how racist you're feeling today, Laura.
Laura: Oh, God.
Laura: Oh, God.
Laura: I wasn't expecting that.
Laura: Like, not very then we should learn.
Ron: The history of atoms.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: It was very whitewashed in Western centric when I was doing my research, so I just felt like we should be a voice for it.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: All right.
Laura: I'm keen for that.
Laura: Let's go.
Laura: All right.
Laura: Begin learning.
Ron: Okay, cool.
Ron: So first thing that they want us to learn about the periodic table is that each of the squares on it represents an element.
Ron: Elements are made of atoms and each element is represented by a different chemical symbol.
Ron: E-G-O represents oxygen, n A represents sodium, stuff like that.
Ron: You've probably seen things like this before.
Ron: They say that an atom is the smallest part of an element that can exist.
Ron: So I thought we'd do a fun little quiz at the beginning of the show where the quiz comes.
Ron: After I've learned it, I thought this would really annoy you.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So we're going to quiz you on some elemental symbols.
Ron: Okay, so the first one, do you know what C is?
Laura: Calcium.
Laura: Carbon.
Laura: It's carbon.
Ron: It is carbon.
Ron: Nice.
Ron: But that's zero points because I need.
Laura: To have a margin of error.
Ron: All right.
Ron: Okay.
Ron: What about.
Laura: Cobalt?
Ron: Oh, nice.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Cu silver.
Ron: No, that one's copper.
Laura: Thinking copper.
Ron: The next one PB.
Laura: Oh, that's lead.
Ron: How do you know all of these?
Laura: Because if you're in the lead, you've got your personal best.
Ron: Wow.
Ron: What about HG?
Ron: Hobblin, mercury?
Laura: Oh, no, that's just stupid, isn't it?
Ron: We might have to cut that because I thought you're going to do a lot worse.
Laura: We're cutting it because I was good at it.
Ron: Yeah, because now the premise of the podcast is that you're bad at things.
Laura: No, I think the premise is I'm genuinely trying my best.
Ron: The premise is just the vague concept of earnestness.
Ron: Next thing, Member Sellers wants us to know it wants you to know the first 20 elements and just to be.
Laura: Able to name those p*** off fly.
Ron: Just because just as a memory exercise, I think.
Ron: So I figured let's not do that.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Because I think you just reeling off elements isn't fascinating.
Ron: Audio content.
Ron: And then specifically, they want us to know the elements from groups one and seven, which makes no sense because group one is super interesting.
Ron: These super reactive metals that literally explode when they touch water really cool.
Ron: Group seven, just a bunch of random metals, like manganese and stuff, which I assume they want you to learn, actually want you to learn group 17, which is like halogens, which actually come up and it's like chlorine and iodine and stuff.
Ron: So, periodic table, what do you think you know about it?
Laura: I know the noble gases go in a club together.
Ron: Can you name any of those?
Laura: Argon, yes.
Laura: Neon?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Helium?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: And I think are the noble gases quite unreactive?
Laura: They're like stable.
Ron: Yeah, because they've got all of their electrons.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: So I know that in my head they're all on the right hand side, but I don't know if that's right.
Ron: That is correct.
Ron: Do you know why the periodic table is organised in the way that it is?
Laura: No, not in the slightest.
Ron: So it's simultaneously organised by properties of the atoms and their electron structure, because it is their electron structure that gives them these properties.
Ron: So the further right you go, the more electrons are in the outer ring of electrons, essentially, that the atom has.
Ron: So by the time you get to your noble gases that we spoke about before, they're all full up.
Ron: So they're not very reactive because they're kind of content.
Laura: Right.
Laura: Hang on a minute.
Laura: I think for the sake of my brain, we need to reverse a little bit, because you're starting to say things about electrons being in the outer ring.
Laura: And I'm like, what are you chatting about?
Ron: Sure.
Ron: Okay, let's go back to the beginning of atoms.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Apologies to anyone that's reading along the syllabus as we go.
Laura: They can't teach you like that.
Laura: They can't be like, Listen, all these ones over here, I've got a full up ring full of electric.
Laura: When what's the ring?
Laura: What's an electron?
Laura: What are you talking about?
Ron: I must admit that that's not actually in the syllabus I was just talking about.
Ron: I've been found out.
Laura: Still trying to slip interesting stuff in here.
Laura: I want the basics and nothing more.
Ron: Right, okay.
Ron: What is your understanding of the structure of an atom?
Laura: It's a circle, I believe it has a ring of electrons around the outside.
Ron: Around the nucleus.
Laura: It's got a nucleus.
Laura: So it's a cell?
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: It's a eukaryote, is it?
Ron: No, it's an atom, not a cell.
Laura: But it's got a nucleus.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Nucleus just means, like, the centre of something.
Laura: That's good information.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: So the only thing I vaguely remember about this is that electrons like to grab onto each other in pairs or something.
Laura: So that's how you make bonds and stuff.
Laura: Is the pairs all match up?
Ron: Yeah, pretty much.
Ron: Which is yeah, exactly.
Ron: So then when I was talking about the noble gases, all of their pairs are full, so they don't need to make bonds with it.
Laura: Got you.
Ron: Anyway, we'll come back to it.
Ron: So let's talk about the history of atomism, which usually I think we'd skip because science podcast, not a history podcast.
Laura: I love history.
Ron: Exactly.
Ron: A, that and B, the reason why they want the kids to learn it is to learn about the scientific method.
Ron: And there's a lot of people in the world who really f****** need to hear about the scientific method because just.
Laura: So that those people listening at home know it's gone so serious all of a sudden.
Laura: Like you might find him in Speakers Corner on a box shouting this to passes by.
Ron: This is just how things like anti vax people come about and they don't understand stuff like this.
Ron: So I thought it would be interesting.
Laura: To go into OK, yeah, I'm excited.
Ron: Ideas build on each other.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: So when do you think if you had to guess, when would you reckon that the first person came up with the idea of an atom?
Laura: Let's guess sometime around like the Enlightenment.
Laura: I'm going to guess like your 1820s.
Ron: No.
Ron: What if I told you it was in the 8th century BCE?
Laura: Holy crap.
Laura: What?
Ron: Yeah, right?
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: Is this one of those things where a Persian dude worked it out and everybody's just never talked about it because nobody wrote it down in English?
Ron: Well, kind of.
Ron: Yes or no?
Ron: So basically this is Indian philosophy.
Ron: The works of the Vedic sage aruni lived in the 8th century BCE in India.
Ron: He came up with the idea that everything is made of particles too small to be seen that mask together into substances and give us experiences in the world.
Ron: He called them carna, not atoms.
Ron: But that's pretty close.
Laura: Is that where you say, I've got carnal knowledge?
Laura: Like I know you're atoms.
Ron: It just might be.
Ron: It's probably not.
Ron: No.
Ron: And then they had a couple of different schools of thought over the next couple of centuries, mainly arguing over how many different atoms there were.
Ron: Either four to represent the four different base elements fire, water, wind, and all that stuff, or 25.
Laura: It's either four or it's 9 billion.
Laura: That kind of makes sense though, to me.
Laura: It's like it's either they're all different or they're all the same.
Laura: Bye.
Ron: And then a few hundred years later, the Greeks start talking about it.
Ron: And then there is just so much more information on the Greek schools of thought on this stuff.
Ron: Not the Indian stuff happened 300 years beforehand.
Ron: Which is kind of why I wanted to talk about this, because in the same Wikipedia article that I was reading, it said, lucifers is widely renowned as the person that invented atoms.
Ron: Then like three paragraphs later, it said that someone in India did it three centuries before.
Ron: So I thought it was worth mentioning.
Speaker UNK: Yeah.
Ron: So this guy Lucippus, definitely not how you pronounce his name and his pupil Democratus, they proposed that all matter was composed of small indivisible particles called atoms that had empty space in between them.
Speaker UNK: Okay.
Ron: Which up until like the 20th century, that was true.
Ron: That's what we knew about it.
Ron: The way it was explained to me when I first learned about this stuff, the thought experiment that they did that led to them working this out was they just ask themselves what would keep happening?
Ron: What would happen if you just kept snapping a branch in half?
Ron: And eventually they somehow thought, well, you couldn't keep snapping it forever.
Ron: So eventually you must reach the smallest thing.
Ron: And that's where the idea of atoms came from.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: And then they have the idea that the properties of the substance were corresponding to the shape of the atoms involved.
Ron: So they thought that iron atoms were solid and strong, and they had hooks that locked them all together and that water atoms were smooth and slippery, slipped past each other, and salt atoms, because of their tastes, were sharp and pointed.
Laura: Yeah, that makes sense to my brain.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: While it's not true and iron atoms don't have hooks and stuff, the shape of the atom does give it its properties.
Ron: So they really weren't far off.
Ron: So Middle Ages.
Ron: I found this breakdown very funny.
Ron: So mediaeval Hindu philosophers, obviously they took the Indian philosophy that we talked about before built upon it.
Ron: They were saying that everything you experience is the result of aggregation of the atoms and the interplay between them, which is basically true.
Laura: So kind of like, what's that thing where water has memory?
Laura: Like that like you're made of homoeopathy.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: The atoms in you are the experiences.
Ron: Do you want to know what the mediaeval Buddhists thought?
Laura: Not really, but we should probably carry on.
Ron: Mediaeval Buddhists considered atoms to be point sized.
Ron: I have no size to be, like, a point in space durationless, which I don't understand.
Ron: But they also said that they are made of energy, which I found super interesting because we're talking, like, pre 1000 Ad.
Ron: Here.
Ron: And the idea that atoms and matter is made of energy is basically Einstein's theory of relativity, but without the equation.
Laura: So Einstein ripped off the Dark Ages.
Laura: All right, Einstein, I'm taking your photo off the wall.
Ron: Then mediaeval Muslims, they decided that they had to be a bit more God focused because all of these ideas were pretty heretical at the time, because you're kind of like you stop yawning what I'm talking about.
Laura: Listening.
Ron: Maybe we should have made a podcast about something.
Ron: You found one?
Laura: No, I'm into it.
Laura: I'm like, Listen, the Dark Ages knew where it was at.
Laura: They are mini Einstein's wandering around.
Laura: Now we got some Muslim dudes they've turned up.
Laura: They're making it a religious thing, as religion does.
Ron: So my understanding of the mediaeval Muslim philosophy of atoms was that atoms are the only permanent thing in the universe.
Ron: And then God and the mother's love and God kind of does things with the atoms, and that's how you experience anything.
Laura: So he's just got a load of atoms and then he Legos them hey, Lego is very helpful in this podcast.
Ron: Lego is back.
Laura: 50 points to Lego this week.
Laura: Lego is God's play thing and you're made of them.
Ron: And then I like to just christendom decided to just ignore the idea of atoms for 15 centuries.
Laura: Nah, wrong.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: No.
Laura: My God.
Laura: Or he wouldn't play with an atom.
Laura: Are you joking?
Laura: He plays with whole people and nothing else.
Ron: Zoom in.
Ron: It's just tiny gods.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: He just snaps his fingers and there's a tiger.
Ron: And then there was the Renaissance.
Ron: And in Italy, in England, it's basically just a bunch of white people catching up with what the rest of the world has been talking about for 1500 years.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: Writing it down real nice and taking a look.
Ron: Yeah, writing it down nice.
Ron: Kind of formalising it in gutenberg to.
Laura: Print it around, get the knowledge out.
Ron: Exactly.
Ron: Hammering it on some doors and stuff.
Ron: Having a good time.
Laura: Also, they got good boats, so they can drive around saying, look, we're good at this.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Look at these atoms.
Ron: The syllabus actually wants us to start with the Discovery of the Electron by JJ Thompson.
Laura: I've read that.
Laura: It's very good.
Laura: It's about the feminist movement in Vienna postwar.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: JJ Thompson.
Ron: Very Austrian.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: No, that would be a wouldn't it?
Laura: Shishweet love festricts.
Ron: Again, very Austrian.
Ron: He theorised something called the plum pudding model.
Laura: And this was a model who really let herself go eating pudding and everybody said to her, no more modelling jobs for you.
Laura: And then she had to get a boyfriend because this was the past and women couldn't support themselves.
Laura: And that is how they discovered that electrons like to come in person, basically.
Ron: In the plum pudding model.
Ron: The idea is that all your model.
Laura: A plum pudding model, that must be gutting, because this fellow would have been a clever scientist, right?
Laura: And now he's gone down in history.
Laura: Plum pudding model.
Laura: Like, at some point in your draught, he guaranteed he's got plum pudding model.
Laura: Brackets, working title.
Laura: JJ come up with something better than this before it goes to press.
Laura: And then that's never happened.
Laura: And now the poor sod has gone down in history with the f****** plumb pudding model.
Laura: Einstein's theory of relativity.
Laura: And how about you, JJ?
Laura: Don't worry about what mine scored.
Laura: Here's what it is, though.
Laura: No, we need the title.
Ron: Yeah, but this guy was born in England in like, 1846 or something was good.
Ron: The throbbing stump he must have had on every time he thought about plum puddings.
Laura: So this is like going like it's the Tesla Mark Three of puddings and science theory.
Ron: The idea is that atoms are a hodgepodge ball of, like, negatively charged electrons.
Ron: The bit that he's just discovered, and in a positively charged mediums, to quote Wikipedia, like, negatively charged plums embedded in a positively charged pudding.
Laura: So excited about plum pudding.
Laura: OK, so he thinks that there's negative electrons and they're like stuck in dough.
Ron: Yes.
Laura: A positive atom.
Laura: And that's holding the electrons into the pudding is the negative positive charge.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So atoms are neutral, but we found out that there are electrons in them.
Ron: So because electrons are negatively charged, therefore they must be within something positively charged to cancel out and make them neutral overall.
Laura: Okay, so atoms are swiss, and electrons are real gloomy gusses.
Laura: They are negator.
Laura: And so in order to stop the electrons being too sad and dying, there's something real happy going on.
Laura: So it's like there's reggae music playing in the atom, and that keeps the electrons from topping themselves.
Ron: God, that was a tedious metaphor for something that we only believed for less than ten years.
Laura: Wait, is none of this stuff the real stuff yet?
Laura: No, I've made so many notes, I thought this was going to be important.
Laura: S*** in h***.
Laura: Can't believe I wasted some focus on that.
Laura: I learned that that's in now, and now I'm going to remember that one and not the next one.
Ron: Of course you're going to remember that one.
Ron: It's called the plum pudding model.
Laura: Why do we just say that that one's true?
Laura: Because it doesn't really matter overall, does it?
Laura: Right.
Laura: Okay, so the plum pudding isn't true.
Ron: Yes, plum pudding.
Ron: Not true.
Laura: Not true.
Laura: It was replaced by the wattle in a blender theory.
Ron: No, it was replaced so there was a guy called rutherford.
Laura: I know Rutherford because one of the colleges at my university was called Rutherford college.
Laura: We had Darwin, Associated Colleges.
Laura: Yeah, not like they were more like where you lived.
Laura: We had Darwin, Rutherford, Elliot, Keynes, who.
Ron: Were Elliott and Keynes.
Laura: T.
Laura: S.
Laura: Eliot.
Laura: And I want to say john Keynes.
Laura: Keynes.
Laura: He was a mathematician.
Ron: Rutherford I can't remember what his name was.
Ron: Margaret.
Ron: He had a team which included geiger of the geiger counter fame.
Ron: They decided to shoot radiation at a very thin piece of gold foil to see what happened.
Laura: Sure, why wouldn't you?
Ron: Because basically, if the world really was made out of plum puddings, they expected the particles to just cruise straight through the foil in a straight line, basically, which most of them did, but one in 80 particles bounced back, so well, rutherford is quoted as saying, it was quite the most incredible event that has ever happened to me in my life.
Ron: It was almost as incredible as if you had fired a 15 inch shell out a piece of tissue paper and had come back and hit you.
Laura: Was it, though?
Laura: I don't believe you.
Laura: What is the point of these bouncy things coming back off some gold?
Laura: Who cares?
Laura: Who would ever have cared if these idiots hadn't wasted their day doing this?
Ron: Everyone.
Ron: It's the basis of atomic theory.
Laura: What does atomic theory do?
Laura: I just think science.
Laura: We should just leave it alone.
Laura: Stop it.
Laura: Stop looking for more ways to kill each other.
Ron: So anyway.
Laura: Right off the gold yeah.
Ron: They worked out from this that the mass of an atom was concentrated in the very centre of the atom.
Laura: Did they work that out from that.
Ron: And that the nucleus was charged?
Laura: Don't just ignore questions that you don't like.
Ron: Yeah, let me finish the sentence, because then I can explain it all in a 1 hour, okay?
Ron: Because some of them just cruise straight through, but then other ones bounce back.
Ron: So rather than the mass being kind of uniformly spread out, it must be concentrated in small bits that were charged and pinging them back.
Ron: Because it didn't get through in some bits, but it got through in others.
Laura: I haven't got a clue what you're talking about, Ron.
Laura: Not a clue.
Laura: Right, here's my best explanation of what you've just said.
Laura: There's a sheet of gold and they fired loads of invisible things at the sheet of gold.
Laura: Some of them came back.
Laura: Therefore that must mean some things have high density.
Ron: Why they use gold is because gold is a very soft metal.
Ron: So gold leaf, you can roll out really thin.
Ron: So it's as close to, like, only a couple of atoms thick as possible.
Ron: Right, so they did that.
Ron: They have as thin as you can, gold.
Ron: And then if the gold was made out of just uniform plum puddings, this radiation, the bullets that they're shooting at it, they'd have just smashed right through.
Ron: All of the particles would have gone through and hit the guard counter straight on the other side.
Ron: But because of the shape of the atoms, because their density was charged and concentrated in one point, when one of the bullets hits, that because it's concentrated, what, it bounces back?
Laura: F*** off.
Laura: This doesn't make any sense.
Ron: All right, think about it this way.
Laura: How do they know there's not just holes in the gold?
Ron: Because it bounces back.
Ron: Think about the bouncing back.
Laura: Yeah, but loads of them didn't.
Laura: So how do they know the ones that didn't just boop through holes in the gold?
Laura: Maybe they rolled it out bad because.
Ron: Going through is what they'd expect if it was plum pudding.
Ron: So they proved that it's not plum pudding because some of them get bounced back.
Ron: Hole of the gold does not affect that.
Laura: I think we spent long enough on this now.
Ron: Yeah, I was worried we wouldn't have enough content for this episode, but apparently not.
Ron: Okay, so the next step in the evolution of all this stuff, danish Neils Bohr, sponsored by Carsberg, comes to England and chats with all these guys that worked out this stuff.
Ron: He chats to Rutherford and the gang takes all of their papers, chats to Charles Darwin's nephew.
Laura: I named drop him.
Ron: He works out that the electrons that are buzzing around the dense nucleus that's charged aren't just kind of milling about Willynilly, they're organised at specific distances from the nucleus.
Ron: Okay, then Rutherford worked out again, same Rutherford, that the positive charge of a nucleus could be broken down and you could take particles out of it.
Ron: These are called protons.
Ron: He'd already discovered those.
Ron: Because a proton is the nucleus of a hydrogen atom.
Laura: So are protons.
Laura: What are protons?
Ron: Protons are positively charged particles.
Ron: Electrons are negatively charged particles.
Ron: In 1920, the world works out that you can have different isotopes of elements.
Ron: That means that they're the same charge, same element, but they have different masses.
Laura: What are you talking about?
Laura: What?
Ron: It's the same element.
Laura: What do you mean?
Laura: What's an element?
Ron: Carbon, sodium, all of these things.
Laura: Right.
Laura: So I've got a carbon atoms, but.
Ron: They weigh a different and they're different masses.
Laura: And that's an isotope.
Ron: That's an isotope, yeah.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: James Chadwick in.
Laura: Red, like, I don't like this guy.
Ron: All he works out is that there is a neutral particle called a neutron in the nucleus, and it's the presence of the number of those that give a rise to different isotopes.
Laura: Oh, my God.
Laura: You might as well be speaking a different language.
Laura: Can we go back to cells?
Laura: This is just blowing.
Laura: I don't understand any of it.
Laura: So I've got a nucleus, and that's got some neutrons inside the nucleus.
Laura: And then around the outside, there's a ring of electrons doing, like, synchronised, swimming in specific patterns.
Laura: If you take some things out, you can make a proton.
Ron: The nucleus is made up of two different types of particle neutrons and protons.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Neutrons, neutral protons, positively charged.
Laura: So that's where the reggae music is coming from.
Ron: Right.
Ron: So imagine this, right?
Ron: Instead of the electrons being gloomy gooses in the darts or bob and their feet to Bob Marley, the positive force keeping them in.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Instead, imagine that the nucleus is made up of neutrons.
Ron: Maybe they're the sound engineers or something, the protons, the Bob Marley's and the whalers, and then the electrons outside of that floating around in specific distances.
Ron: So maybe it's a seated concert.
Ron: And then the positive vibes of the Bob Marley music coming out of the nucleus is keeping the electrons nearby.
Laura: They're dancing, aren't they, in formation around to the music.
Ron: Exactly.
Laura: We're going to go down in history one day.
Laura: There'll be a podcast where people will be like, first of all, the plum pudding method.
Laura: Then in 2022, the Bob Marley method was discovered, and we will be geniuses.
Laura: Okay, but if there's more sound engineers at one disco than the other, that's an isotope.
Ron: Exactly.
Laura: Righty.
Laura: Ho.
Ron: That's everything that they wanted you to know about the discovery of atoms.
Ron: That's a lot more I just want.
Laura: You to know, next to none of that has gone in at all.
Laura: All right?
Laura: Okay, so we know about the history of cells.
Laura: Now we know not cells, atoms.
Laura: And they're different.
Laura: What else are we going to learn?
Ron: Okay, so then all the rest that we're going to cover is just a couple of the basics of just elements and what they're all about.
Ron: So each atom is represented by a symbol on the periodic table.
Ron: So, for example, O is oxygen, C is carbon, and then you can represent compounds or mixtures by merging those together.
Ron: So, for example, CO2 is one carbon and two oxygens, or HTO is two hydrogens and one oxygen.
Ron: Group one.
Ron: Those are the alkali metals.
Ron: Yes, it is.
Ron: So, you know we were talking about Niels Bohr, sponsored by Carlsberg.
Ron: He worked out that the electrons are at specific distances from the nucleus.
Laura: Yeah, I remember that.
Laura: Did you say the words Neil Spore to me?
Ron: Neil Spore?
Laura: I don't remember this.
Ron: By Carlsberg.
Laura: I haven't left this chair yet.
Laura: You're saying stuff and I'm like, that was a different lady.
Ron: He hung out with Rutherford and Charles Darwin's nephew.
Laura: I must have blacked out for a second, but okay.
Ron: Are you looking at a periodic table?
Laura: No.
Laura: Do you want me to be okay?
Ron: It might be easier if you are.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: As a general rule, always assume I'm not looking at a periodic table.
Laura: There's loads of them.
Laura: All right, I'm going to go for this one.
Laura: I like it.
Laura: It's nice and brightly coloured.
Laura: It's got good shape to it.
Laura: Bit sexy.
Laura: Got hydrogen just up there on the left hanging out.
Ron: Lovely.
Ron: So, Neil's boss, sponsored by Carlsberg, he, works out that the electrons are at specific distances from the nucleus.
Ron: So the different rows of the periodic table, they represent each of these specific distances.
Ron: So, like one of the rings that the electrons can be in, hydrogen and.
Laura: Helium are in the same row and they're the only things in their row.
Laura: So their electrons are at the same distance.
Ron: Exactly, because if you think about it, they're closest in.
Ron: So it's the smallest ring.
Ron: So it only fits two in there.
Laura: No.
Laura: What are you talking about?
Ron: So the electrons are at specific distances from the nucleus.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: Hydrogen and helium are at the closest specific distance.
Ron: And because it's the closest, the ring that makes around the atom has the smallest radius and therefore the smallest circumference, and therefore is smaller.
Ron: The columns represent how many electrons that element has in its outer row.
Ron: So row one, column one, first ring, one electron in it.
Ron: Row one, column two.
Ron: Still the first ring, but two electrons in it.
Ron: Right.
Laura: I just want to say yes.
Laura: So it's over.
Laura: But no.
Laura: What are you talking about?
Laura: Right, hang on, I better explain this because it's kind of a bit complicated.
Laura: So I'm going to draw a little hydrogen atom.
Laura: So I've drawn a circle, a little nucleus, then it's a ring around it, and then it's got two electrons doing a little dance around it.
Ron: Draw that again.
Ron: But with only one electron.
Laura: You said it had two.
Laura: No, I didn't rewind the tape, Your Honour.
Laura: You did.
Laura: You f****** bought s***.
Laura: You did.
Ron: Helium has two.
Ron: You've drawn a helium atom there.
Laura: But then why are.
Laura: They on the same level.
Ron: Draw it again, but with one.
Ron: Draw it again with one.
Laura: I want to cry.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Now, you've got a hydrogen next to a helium.
Laura: So why are they on the same level if they've got different numbers of atoms, electrons?
Ron: Because, you see, they've only got one ring of electrons.
Laura: So it's not about how many electrons, it's about how many rings.
Ron: The rows is how many rings.
Ron: The element is how many electrons do you see on the periodic table?
Ron: Each element has a little number, like hydrogen is one and helium is two and lithium is three.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: That's how many electrons there are.
Laura: Okay, right.
Laura: This is making sense now.
Laura: Okay, so everything on hydrogen and helium's row has one ring, and then hydrogen has one electron, helium has two.
Laura: On that one ring, then lithium, Beryllium, they all have two.
Laura: How do you know which ring the electrons are on?
Ron: So the inner rings are always full.
Ron: If there's an outer ring, if that makes sense, you can't lose an electron from the middle.
Ron: Now, so looking at your little drawings that you've done again, look at the hydrogen one and look at the lithium one.
Ron: Hydrogens the one electron.
Ron: Lithium is the three.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I actually turned my lithium into a beryllium, so I'll just draw another lithium that is a nucleus in the middle, a ring with two electrons on it, and then one electron hanging out on its own outer ring.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Could you draw a sodium as well?
Laura: Okay.
Laura: Right, here's the test.
Laura: I'm going to draw a sodium.
Laura: So it's three rows down, which means it's got three rings, and the little number above it says eleven.
Laura: So I'm going to put two dots in the middle and then eight dots, 123-4567, eight in the second ring.
Laura: And then on my third ring, I'll put the final dot.
Laura: That makes eleven.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: So you can see that lithium and sodium, they both only have one electron in their outer ring.
Laura: Yup.
Ron: And it is that property that gives those two elements their properties.
Ron: So lithium and sodium actually react really similarly to each other in the same situations because they both just have that outer electron, and it's kind of that that lets them interact with other stuff.
Laura: Okay, so that makes them open to opportunities.
Ron: Well, basically, because it's just one of them out there on its own, it's really easy for them to lose that electron.
Laura: To lose it, yeah.
Ron: So they lose that electron, and then because a negative electron has gone away, that leaves what's left with a positive charge overall.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So then, because they're positive, they're reacting with stuff because they're attracting other things.
Ron: So, for example, table salt is sodium chloride.
Ron: N-A-C-L.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Right.
Ron: You see the row with fluorine and chlorine and bromine?
Ron: Sorry, the column with fluorine and chlorine and bromine.
Laura: Row 17.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: They're only one away from the very right hand side.
Ron: So their outer ring of electrons is all but one full.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: Very full up.
Ron: So they find it really easy to just like take an electron and then that fills up that ring.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: So table salt is NaCl because sodium is just shed in its electron.
Ron: Chlorine is hoovering it up and then they can be friends because the sodium atom is then positively charged.
Ron: The chlorine atom is negatively charged.
Ron: Sodium chloride.
Laura: Okay, that makes sense.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: So they've got a loose dancer, pops over to the other one.
Laura: This party is really good now.
Laura: We've got rid of that sad guy.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: He goes over and see busy at our party.
Laura: Let's go and share one big party.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: It's kind of like someone's third wheeling.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: But at Chlorine they've got an empty chair and it's a bit weird that no one's in it.
Laura: It's great.
Ron: Yeah.
Laura: And then it's delicious.
Laura: Salt.
Ron: Salt is good.
Ron: Okay.
Ron: I think the last thing that we need to run through today is just the difference between a compound and a mixture.
Ron: Strap compound is when two elements chemically react, are changed by it and then they form something new.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: Usually there is an energy level.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: That is a chemical reaction.
Ron: Oxygen reacts with iron, makes iron oxide.
Laura: Which is a new thing, is given.
Ron: Off, which is a new thing.
Ron: A mixture is when two things are in the same space, but they haven't chemically reacted.
Ron: They are just two things occupying the same space.
Ron: What?
Ron: These mixtures can be separated just by filtering or by crystallisation or something like that.
Ron: Whereas something that's a compound, you'll need a different chemical process to then separate those things again.
Laura: Because when they met, an energy change happened.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: So you'd either need to put energy in or take it back out to get them into the states that they were in before.
Ron: And I think that's lesson number two.
Laura: Oh, my God.
Laura: I prefer biology.
Ron: Sames.
Ron: That's why I didn't study chemistry.
Ron: University.
Laura: All right, Ron, thank you for teaching me that.
Laura: I'll see you next week when it's quizzes.
Laura: Well, it is over one week later and I couldn't even remember the subject we were studying, so I haven't got high hopes for this quiz.
Laura: All right, Ron, let's go.
Laura: Question number one.
Ron: Okay, straight from the syllabus.
Ron: Can you just name a point for each as many as you can of the first ten elements?
Laura: Carbon?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Hydrogen?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Oxygen?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Helium?
Ron: Yes.
Ron: Nirvana?
Laura: Sodium.
Ron: No.
Laura: Nitrogen?
Ron: Yes.
Laura: Sorry about stupid dog in the background.
Ron: Thinktime Square, burger.
Laura: West Indian, Broadway.
Ron: Like think Rock.
Ron: Think Times Square.
Ron: Think elements.
Laura: Squaredium.
Laura: Beryllium?
Ron: Yes.
Ron: How the f*** did you get Beryllium?
Ron: Before somebody took the first one, you said oh, d***.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: Chlorine.
Ron: No, one of them is like if Chlorine was trying to make up a fake name to get into a club or something.
Laura: Mr.
Laura: Chlorine.
Laura: I don't know.
Laura: I think that's as many as I.
Ron: Can think of six, though, actually, number two, can you please, in your own words, describe the plum pudding model?
Laura: The plum pudding model was minus points.
Ron: For Bob Marley references.
Laura: Plum pudding was like, hey, guys.
Ron: Most scientific models don't really start with a.
Laura: I've had a science idea.
Laura: No.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: Which I can't remember which way around protons and electrons go.
Laura: Protons are positive.
Laura: Sounds like it pro in it.
Laura: So I think protons were the plums, and they got in a little pudding that was the opposite, and that's what sucked them in and kept them there.
Ron: Because if you remember, it was the sad Negative Nellies, the electrons that were in the positive pull of the Bob Marley.
Laura: Oh, yeah.
Laura: See, now, if you'd let me do it via my Bob Marley method, then it would have been fine.
Ron: Well, I mean, you can think about Bob Marley.
Ron: It's like in an exam.
Ron: You can use mnemonics, but you don't write them out in but this guy.
Laura: Was allowed to call it plum pudding.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: I mean, as we discussed it last week, in depth plum puddings were just the most exciting thing.
Ron: So it makes sense.
Ron: Okay, next question.
Ron: Can you describe the experiment done by Rutherford et al?
Laura: Was this the gold leaf?
Laura: So they had some gold leaf rolled out very thin, and then they fired radioactive bullets at it or like, radiation at it, and some of them went through, and some of them bounced back, which proved it wasn't all even that there were dense spots of stuff.
Ron: Wow.
Ron: Yes.
Ron: That was all correct.
Laura: Great.
Laura: I can't remember what was dense, though.
Ron: Which leads me on to my next question.
Ron: The final question for this quiz.
Ron: Can you just describe the structure of an atom?
Laura: Okay.
Laura: The structure of an atom is in the middle is the nucleus, and the nucleus contains a neutron, which is like.
Ron: Just one no, wait.
Laura: However many neutrons it is meant something, didn't it?
Laura: That was.
Ron: Something to do with it.
Ron: Not necessarily observation.
Laura: I'm just not a science person.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: And then Negative Nellies, the electrons are in rings around the nucleus and the neutron.
Laura: So when one ring is full, you go onto the next one.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: Some marks there.
Ron: I reckon neutrons are in the nucleus, and they do have something to do with it.
Ron: That's the point.
Ron: Protons are also in the nucleus.
Ron: They are the positive charge that keeps the electrons circling.
Ron: And then the point for the electrons being in rings or in layers around the atom.
Ron: That's all good work.
Ron: By my account, you got 14 points there.
Laura: Okay.
Laura: All right.
Laura: So let's find out how many points were available in total.
Ron: So, question number one.
Ron: The first ten elements is hydrogen, helium, lithium was the one that was talking about navana beryllium, which you somehow got boron, which I'm just not surprised you've never heard of.
Ron: Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, which is what I said was like a fake name for chlorine.
Ron: And then neon, which is time square.
Laura: Okay.
Ron: So mark for each of those.
Ron: And then with the that's ten in total.
Ron: And then with the plum pudding model.
Ron: So I gave you a mark because you described the general sort of plums in the pudding thing, and that meant that there were charge particles in an oppositely charged thing.
Ron: You'd have gotten another mark if you set it the right way round, basically.
Ron: And then if you'd said sort of dense spheres or the fact that there's no space in between the particles, I'd have given you another mark.
Speaker UNK: Okay.
Ron: And then for the Rutherford one, you got full mark.
Ron: So gold leaf, or very thinly rolled gold, because it's as thin as you can get.
Ron: It just a couple of atoms thick.
Ron: Fire and radiation at it.
Ron: Some bounced back, some went straight through, and that's because some points of the gold leaf was denser than others.
Ron: So four points for that.
Ron: Yeah.
Ron: And then with how atoms are arranged.
Ron: So I gave you a point very generously for neutrons.
Ron: Gave you a point for protons.
Ron: Again.
Ron: Pretty generously, I think.
Ron: Another point for electrons being organised in structures.
Ron: And then you'd have gotten the last point there if you said that the number of neutrons determines the isotope, which I think is what you meant by has something to do with it.
Laura: Yeah.
Laura: I'd never remembered the word isotope.
Laura: It's not that like the Springfield baseball team is the Isotope.
Laura: Yes.
Ron: The Springfield Isotopes.
Laura: Yeah.
Ron: It's a clever name.
Laura: Not a bad effort, though.
Laura: I feel like when we sat down to do the quiz, I genuinely thought, oh my God, I can't remember any of it.
Laura: So I feel not too bad at that.
Laura: Well, thank you very much, Ron.
Laura: I feel very grateful to have learned.
Ron: My pleasure.
Laura: And thank you for listening.
Laura: Listeners, if you like what we're doing, give us a like and subscribe share.
Laura: It about.
Laura: Tell people that it's a silly nice podcast.
Laura: You can tweet us and instagram us at Lex Education and you can email us lex Education@gmail.com.
Laura: We'll see you next week.
Ron: Class dismissed.
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