Categories
Materials Chemistry Sport Chemistry

What are the Tokyo 2020 Olympic medals made of?

The delayed 2020 Olympics are currently taking place in Tokyo, and setting a number of firsts. Obviously, it’s the first Olympics to take place without a public audience in the stadiums to watch the events. However, it’s also the first Olympics at which the medals are made entirely from recycled metals. This graphic takes a […]

Categories
Materials Chemistry Sport Chemistry

What are the 2018 Winter Olympics medals made of?

If you’ve been enjoying the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang over the past few weeks, you might have wondered what the medals the winning athletes receive are made of. As this graphic shows, it’s not quite as simple as gold, silver, and bronze!

Categories
Materials Chemistry

The Composition of the Rio Olympics Medals

If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you might have assumed that the medals given out are, as advertised, made of gold, silver, and bronze. Due to metal values, however, the reality is slightly more complicated. Giving out pure gold medals would be financially crippling for the International Olympic Committee, so unsurprisingly some compromises are involved. […]

Categories
Colourful Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry

Metal Ion Flame Test Colours Chart

This graphic looks at the colour of various metal and metalloid ions that occur during flame tests. Most people probably remember doing this experiment in school chemistry lessons, if not with the full range of ions shown here, but for the uninitiated a brief explanation of the origin of the colours follows.

Categories
General Chemistry

Element Infographics – Group 2

The second of a series of infographics on the groups of the periodic table, here some general properties of the group 2 elements are examined. As stated previously, these are primarily aimed at secondary school students, hence the relative simplicity and generality of the information presented. If you want to download this infographic for your […]