9781422279496

Silicon: INTRODUCTION

Introduction

T ake a close look around you. What do you see? A wall, a cat, a book, yesterday’s lunch dishes. Outside your window, you might see clouds or rain or the sun shin- ing while your heart pumps your blood throughout your body. All of those things—the solids, liquids, and gases around you—are composed of elements of the periodic table. The periodic table is an arrangement of all the naturally occurring, and manufactured, elements known to humans at this point. There are 92 elements that can be found naturally on Earth and in space. The remaining 26 (and counting) have been manufactured and analyzed in a lab. These elements, alone or in combination with others, form and shape all the matter around us. From the air we breathe, to the water we drink, to the food we eat—all these things are made of elements. A lot of information about an element can be learned just by finding its location on the periodic table. The periodic table

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