THE PERIODIC TABLE
ELEMENT NAME: Hydrogen
SYMBOL: H
ATOMIC NUMBER: 1
YEAR OF DISCOVERY: 1766
ETYMOLOGY: Hydrogen breaks down into Hydro- the Greek for water, and -gen,the Greek for to form, or to generate. That’s the same '-gen' in 'generate', and also 'gene' and 'genesis'. It's fairly obvious where this name comes from (hydrogen is needed to make water).
DISCOVERY: In 1766, Henry Cavendish named the gas resulting from a metal-acid interaction "inflammable air". This was the first instance of hydrogen gas being recognized as a distinct material, and he is usually credited for the discovery of it.
USES:
The largest single use of hydrogen in the world is in ammonia manufacture, which consumes about two-thirds of the world’s hydrogen production.
- Massive amounts of hydrogen can be found in stars and giant gas planets. Molecular clouds of H2 are associated with star formation. The sun's and stars' light is produced by hydrogen.
- Another major application of hydrogen is in the hydrogenation of organic compounds. Unsaturated vegetable and animal oils and fats are hydrogenated to make margarine and vegetable shortening.
- Hydrogen was once used for inflating lighter-than-air vessels, such as balloons, but now helium is generally used because it is non-flammable. (Link - Hindenburg_disaster)
- Because of its simple atomic structure the hydrogen atom, together with the spectrum of light produced from it or absorbed by it, was central to the development of the theory of atomic structure. (Link - Why Some of the Rainbow is Missing - Be Smart)
OTHER INFORMATION:
- Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, three times more abundant than helium (the second most widely occurring element). On Earth, hydrogen ranks ninth among the elements in abundance.
- Hydrogen is approximately 14 times lighter than air. It is the lightest chemical element. It is so light that Earth’s gravity cannot hold it in the atmosphere and little “free” hydrogen atoms are found on Earth.
- Antihydrogen is the antimatter counterpart to hydrogen. It consists of an antiproton with a positron. Antihydrogen is the only type of antimatter atom to have been produced.
- In German, Hydrogen is called Wasserstoff, meaning “water stuff”.
- Hydrogen technically burns in the visible light spectrum (a pale blue color), but it can be so pale as to be invisible. There's a story about an incident at NASA where some hydrogen escaped in a particular building, and caught on fire. They couldn't see it, and pure hydrogen also burns without smoke and with very little heat, making it basically indetectable to them. Their solution? For a few days, all the techs in that building just walked around brandishing brooms in front of them. If your broom lit on fire, well, you've located burning hydrogen. yay! (link)
NOTE: you may have seen hydrogen burning orange, but pure hydrogen burns only a pale blue. The orange color comes from soot and other stuff in the air lighting alongside it.