About The Elements Song

I stuck this commentary in a separate post as it is quite long.

The Elements song by Thomas Lehrer is a fun memory test if nothing else! Here he is performing it in 1967: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM In this version he says Gold twice and misses Sulfur...

Mr. Lehrer based on this song "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General". Not as well known now I guess: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGWoXDFM64

Bonus! Here is an odd Japanese version for ya too: http://boingboing.net/2010/10/08/the-elements-tom-leh.html

The number of elements discovered expands all the time. This song lists 102, now there are 118, though not all have names yet. The named ones 103 to 112 are lawrencium, rutherfordium, dubnium, seaborgium, bohrium, hassium, meitnerium, darmstadtium, roentgenium and copernicium,

The newest only have names based on their number so 113 to 118 are ununtrium, ununquadium, ununpentium, ununhexium, ununseptium and ununoctium.

Though 114 and 116 were only this year named Flerovium (FL) and Livermorium (Lv) for the labs they were discovered in. You can see the whole table here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table_(large_version)

Of course it was much easier to learn in Aristotle's time when there was only Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Also Chuck Norris only recognises one element: the element of surprise :-)