The Boron Elements: Boron, Aluminum, Gallium, Indium, Thallium

The ancient Greeks believed that there were four basic elements: air, earth, fire, and water. Today, we know that there are more than one hundred different elements. Everything around us is made up of these elements. No one really thought to organize these elements until the middle of the nineteenth century, a Russion scientist named Dmitry Mendeleyev published the fist periodic table in 1869. Though the periodic table we use today is a little different than Mendeleyev's, we owe him a great deal of gratitude. The periodic table is as important to chemists as maps are to explorers. The periodic table arranges the elements according to their periodic properties. This helps chemists to understand and predict how the different elements act. There are eighteen groups on the periodic table. The elements in a given group have similar characteristics. In this book, we will examine the elements of group 13, also known as the boron group. Of the group 13 elements, boron and aluminum are the most well-known. This book will also focus on the lesser-known group 13 elements. We will discuss where they are found, what makes them unique, what their properties are, how they react, and how they are used. By Heather Hasan. 2010 by The Rosen Publishing Group