Neon

Did you know that neon is a Greek word that means "new"? Neon is the element that I am most interested in. I chose to do neon because I found out what many uses it has in our daily life. Neon is the element that allows you to watch TV. Without neon we would never see the cool flashing signs outside of diners and bars. In my essay I am going to tell you about neon and its many uses.

First, I'm going to tell you about the history and uses of neon. Neon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, and Morris M. Travers, an English chemist, shortly after their discovery of the element krypton in 1898. Neon is one of the most amusing elements used today. Neon mixed with some other elements can make a bright light in an enclosed tube. This is mostly used in advertising signs (figure A) (A blue or green coloration in the discharge can be done by adding a little mercury to the neon in the discharge tube), but when used in a different mixture of molecules it can make the figures on your TV (figure B). Neon is also used in

High voltage indicators (figure C) and neon-helium laser pointers (figure D).

Now I?m going to give you the chemical breakdown of neon. Neon?s atomic number is #10. Neon has 10 protons, 10 neutrons, and 10 electrons. It belongs to the Noble Gas section of the periodic table. Its atomic mass is 20.1797. All the noble gases have the maximum number of electrons possible in their outer shell making them stable and unable to bond with other elements. All of the gases have eight electrons on their outer shell except for Helium has two. Neon is found in the atmosphere. Neon is 0.002% of the atmosphere. Also, stars produce neon during the later stages of nuclear fusion.

All there is to talk about neon now is about how it integrates into our life. To show you the integration in our society I will demonstrate a situation in which neon comes into play. Imagine walking around in Las Vegas with your friends looking to have a good time before your business meeting the next day. You look up and see giant signs that flash and move around advertising casinos and restaurants. Those signs are discharge tubes holding the active ingredients of our friend neon and his buddy mercury. You decide to walk into the casino with the biggest, coolest sign that says "MGM". You walk into the casino wondering what to do first, so you walk over to the nearest craps table. You play craps for a couple hours and decide to cash in and go out to eat with all the money you won. You walk into a sports bar to get a drink and you notice a TV with the Lakers game on. You look up at the TV and notice they are losing 84 to 36. The television has a tube in it that holds neon to project things onto the glass screen you see, without neon you wouldn't be able to watch any of your favorite shows. When you are finished eating your friends ask if you want to go