Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Chlorine is part of which widely used plastic pipe material?
PVC stands for polyvinyl chloride, and its chlorine content helps pipes resist fire and wear.
Why is chlorine added to swimming pools?
Chlorine kills bacteria and viruses by breaking apart their cells and blocking their growth.
Chlorine gas was first used as a large-scale weapon in which war?
Germany released chlorine clouds at Ypres in 1915, and the wind carried the gas over Allied trenches.
What color is chlorine gas at room temperature?
Chlorine gets its name from the Greek word chloros, meaning pale green, for its tinted clouds.
Bromine's name comes from Greek bromos, which means what?
Greek bromos means stench, referring to bromine's strong, irritating odor.
Why did silver bromide help traditional photographic film capture images?
Light exposure creates tiny silver particles in silver bromide, forming a latent image that development makes visible.
Chlorine's name comes from Greek for which color?
The Greek word khlōros means pale green, matching chlorine gas's yellow-green appearance.
Which iodine compound has been used to seed clouds by mimicking ice crystals?
Silver iodide crystals resemble ice, so they can help supercooled cloud droplets freeze during cloud seeding.
Which fluorine-containing polymer gives many nonstick pans their slippery coating?
PTFE's strong carbon–fluorine bonds create a low-friction surface that resists sticking and many chemicals.
What color does liquid bromine usually have?
Bromine's vapor is also strongly colored, while mercury is the only other element liquid at typical room temperature.