Chemistry Homework

[JOBO1]

Can anyone help with this chemistry question. Any help would be appreciated

Which of these would turn to a gas last.
copper
magnesium
oxygen
helium
sulphur
mercury
water

[Answerprancer]

No! ...it must be stopped - chemistry is a meandering adventure and no spoilers must be provided!

[theprof]

Chris is correct. Capitalising the name of an element is frowned upon nowadays thanks to IUPAC. Symbolic representation remains as it's always been ie Hg/mercury, Cu/copper etc

I sat on one of the IUPAC committees that ultimately made this decision a good few years ago and believe me, the decision didn't go through smoothly. One of my learned colleagues from the other place was all for it because he reckoned that at least it would make typing easier!

I know I've capitalised Elements inadvertently here on AB but it's a case of old habits dying hard. I don't always conform.

[Peter Pedant]

JOb if you are our age then you will know that just saying - Mg is NOT the answer....

he is meant ( since none of us carry boiling points around in our heads ) look up the boiling points and put them in order. The set generated will have a least and greatest elements ( of boiling points) and your grandson chooses the greatest

doing it for him is not the learning exercise he has been set

and honestly you should know it is a toss up between Cu and Mg

[Peter Pedant]

oops Cu has twice the b oiling point of Mg

ut it meant to stimulate hi to think why metals have much higher b ps than not metals

and why as ,etals get heavier and or up the periodic table, why their boiling points go up

and water - why does water boil at 100'C considering that the constuents hydrogen and oxygen have so LOW boiling points ? at least I know the answer to that one