The Chemical Elements: " The Building Blocks of Molecules "

A chemical element (or element) is a chemical substance consisting of atoms having the same number of protonsin their atomic nuclei (i.e. the same atomic number, Z). There are 118 elements that have been identified, of which the first 94 occur naturally on Earth with the remaining 24 being synthetic elements. There are 80 elements that have at least one stable isotope and 38 that have exclusively radioactive isotopes, which decay over time into other elements. Iron is the most abundant element (by mass) making up the Earth, while oxygen is the most common element in the crust of the earth. This book discusses the origin and classifications of The Chemical Elements.