forum NEED HELP FROM SOMEONE WHO KNOWS STUFF ABOUT SCIENCE specifically about the periodic table and how those elements react.

Started May 07, 2021 by jesse

tune

the idea for my character is someone who can control the elements. not the four elements (earth water air fire) but all the elements of the periodic table. i would like to know what kind of things they could do under normal circumstances. like combining Oxygen in the air with some carbon from some steel to create carbon monoxide as an attack.

also the character can draw power from radiation so they would be able to do some pretty awesome destructive stuff with elements like plutonium.

I would appreciate any help you guys could give me!

I think I could help! my knowledge of chemistry is rather on a high school level, but this is one of my favorite subject and I'm actually quite good at that. anything you ask - I'll try to explain as well as my limit of English language allows me

ok thank you very much! I'm wondering what type of stuff this character could do in different situations, and how they would be helpful in basic story situations like fighting, survival, sneaking, etc..

what kind of combustion reactions can be made with elements you can find in everyday situations? Namely outside.

what can you do with radioactive elements besides you know nuclear explosion?

any ideas you have of what kind of things a character who could magically control the elements could do i would love to hear them!

ill message you with more questions if you are open to that, when i think of more.
thanks for your willingness to help!

I don’t remember much from my school days but I can help with this one—

what can you do with radioactive elements besides you know nuclear explosion?

Small amounts of radioactive materials can be ingested as "radiotracers" to see how certain chemicals are taken up by the body. If a health researcher is interested in how a certain element is distributed by the body after it is ingested, he can choose to use a radioactive isotope of a common element, mix it in, and then use sensitive radiaion detectors to see where it ends up in the body. These are often used in studies to see how medications are absorbed and transported within the body.

Thorium, a naturally ocurring radioactive element, is used in making mantles for gas and kerosene lamps because thorium oxide glows brightly when heated.

The radioactive elements uranium and plutonium are used in the generation of electricity in nuclear power plants.

Small radiactive sources of particles are used in many home smoke detectors.

These elements are also used in the production of nuclear weapons. One can propose that the presence of nuclear weapons has prevented war, but also that they have made the consequences of possible war much much worse than before.

Depleted uranium—naturally ocurring uranium with the U235 taken out—is mostly U238 which is a bit less radioactive than the natural material. This material is very dense and hard, however, and otherwise useless, so the army uses it to make bullets and other shells. These can pierce steel armor. Whether this is a good use or a bad use depends on which side of the gun you're standing on, I suppose.

Some radioactive elements glow because of their radioactive decays. They emit electrons or alpha particles, changing from one kind of element to another, and as the electrons in the atoms rearrange themselves to the new atom's configuration, they emit light. Radium was used for watch dials because it glows green. Tritium can also be used as a backlight in watches because it too glows green. Tritium is still used in small quantities in small vials on watch hands and to mark the hour positions on watch dials. However, Radium isn't used anymore.

what kind of combustion reactions can be made with elements you can find in everyday situations? Namely outside.

surely setting hydrogen on fire. I assume that your character doesn't live near a volcano or in space, so I'll focus on where hydrogen can be found with no trouble.
I think the easiest way for your character to get hydrogen is water photolysis. in this process the hydrogen is disconnected from oxygen in this equation:

2H2O → 4H+ + O2 + 4e–

let's analyze what will happen to every product:

H+ - hydrogen cation (or simply a proton, since it doesn't have any more electrons)
this is the point of our interest. as you know, hydrogen appears only in molecules H2, so as to be similar to helium. so when they are present in H+ ions, they'll definitely want to take some electrons from the environment and connect to another hydrogen. so for every H+ to become H2 there will be needed one H and one e–. but let's limit ourselves to this reaction.

e– - electrons
we have four H+ and four e–. to make one H, one electron has to connect with one H+. so after all H+ and e– connect, we will get two H. and as they're free radicals, they will easily find themselves and form H2 molecules. now your character can set that on fire and make a huge explosion! but how huge? you'll need thousands if not hundreds of thousands hydrogens to make an explosion that's pleasing, I'd say. so they would have to repeat photolysis everytime, which would take a lot of time. or they can somehow do thousands of photolyses at once.

O2 - oxygen molecule
everything that burns needs oxygen, because it sustains fire. and from our reaction O2 releases into the air, so if your character lights up hydrogen, the oxygen will be also used for this explosion. so there's no need to worry about this one.

things worth mentioning:

• photolysis is a catabolic reaction, so it releases energy when it's done

• it can happen only in the light, so when your character wants to photolyse something at night, it would be harder to get a light source

• in nature, photolysis happens in chloroplasts, so it's mainly a plants' reaction (hydrogen and electrons are used for photosynthesis, and oxygen released into the environment)

• hydrogen is lighter than the air so your character would need to keep it in one place somehow so it doesn't fly into space

• they still need fire to light it, but a simple match won't do unless your character is immune to fire. they would need to throw the match, or somehow light the hydrogen from afar so as not to get hurt

• when hydrogen explodes it makes a really loud characteristic noise (well, the explosions are loud in themselves, but I thought this would be worth mentioning). my teacher always described it as a "clang", you can look it up

that's one of the simplest methods. there can be also a reaction of metal + acid -> sal + hydrogen, but how can your character get metal and acid, and what would they do with the sal? I think photolysis is the most logical way of doing that.

any ideas you have of what kind of things a character who could magically control the elements could do i would love to hear them!

do they control the elements inside a human's body? if yes, they could be pretty op because they could kill in thousands of ways, just by taking one element
what about inside plants? they could control how they grow by changing what elements they take in
can they break atoms in half? they would be a walking atomic bomb maker
can they control only elements or whole compounds? this would be also important, I think it's the most

anyway, I hope I helped in any way! that was the first idea that came into my mind, but remember I'm not a chemist, just a student, so I don't really know if that would be chemically possible. but your character can control the elements, so I think the least important thing for you to know is if a reaction is realistic.

thank you both so much! this is incredibly helpful and this character is becoming more and more interesting then I thought!

a few more questions if you don't mind. what would that entail if the character could control compounds as well as elements?

what would happen if you messed with the elements inside a plant well it grew? could you make it grow faster or change the plant completely?

what kind of reactions cool down things? like what could you do to freeze water?

thanks again you guys have been a huge help!

also I had the idea that the character (whos name is Mackie) caries as many elements as she can find around in a metal box (some parts being made out of led for the radioactive ones). to keep them safe I thought it would be neat if it needed three different chemical reactions in three different locks to open. each reaction would need to be started by someone who can control the elements to initiate the reaction inside the lock. I don't know what reactions they would be, maybe a meatal pin that when cooled is small enough to slide out of the way to open the lid. if you have any ideas on how this could work id love to hear them!

what would that entail if the character could control compounds as well as elements?

whole compounds give more freedom of movement. for example, let's take methanoic acid. its formula is CH2O2. if your character could control elements only, she would have to control carbon, hydrogen and oxygen separately. I imagine that would be more time-consuming or energy-intensive. if she could control the whole compound, it would be faster for her to move it somewhere else, but, I think, harder to do reactions. but that's just my assuming! maybe defining pros and cons of this dilemma won't change a thing about how she does her reactions, but I think it's the basic thing to know that will give you a starting point.

what would happen if you messed with the elements inside a plant well it grew? could you make it grow faster or change the plant completely?

you could definitely kill a plant in many ways, just by taking H2O, H+, ADP, NADP+, even electrons, and the list goes on. I don't think you could change the plant into a different one, and if your character could control such big compounds as one of those huge chlorophylls like here:

it would only change the color of the plant, and she'd have to move lots of those. UNLESS she could somehow control the billions of billions molecules of DNA, and change all of them at will. but that's a lot of work and knowledge about proteins.

making a plant grow faster would be possible, but that would be a long and monotonous process. you'd have to constantly give light, carbon dioxide and water to a plant, improve the productivity of all thylakoids in all chloroplasts in all cells, speed up the transport of organic compounds and many other reactions. that's a very complicated process from a biological point of view, but if your character could master controlling all those reactions, they would be possible until the resources run out.

what kind of reactions cool down things? like what could you do to freeze water?

this one is the easiest question - everything that needs to be done is to slow down the movement of atoms. every atom in the world moves at an enormously high speed. atoms in the gases move the fastest, slower in liquids, and in solids they only vibrate. I found this picture to help illustrate it better:

the faster atoms move, the higher the temperature of the body is. so if your character could slow down their movement, she could easily control the state of matter of every element (and I think even regardless of the air pressure and temperature)! remember, even if she turned water to ice when there's 25°C outside, she'd have to maintain the process, because the ice would obviously melt.

also I had the idea that the character (whos name is Mackie) caries as many elements as she can find around in a metal box (some parts being made out of led for the radioactive ones). to keep them safe I thought it would be neat if it needed three different chemical reactions in three different locks to open. each reaction would need to be started by someone who can control the elements to initiate the reaction inside the lock. I don't know what reactions they would be, maybe a meatal pin that when cooled is small enough to slide out of the way to open the lid. if you have any ideas on how this could work id love to hear them!

there are plenty of reactions to choose from! would you like for them to be easy and easily done or with compounds that are difficult to obtain for a normal person? your idea is very creative; would you like other ones to be simpler or so hard that only she knows how to unlock them? try to describe how do you want the locks to affect her story, or how does she feel about opening them. does she find it enjoyable? and lastly, do you focus solely on the reaction, or could the solution be a product of one?

there are plenty of reactions to choose from! would you like for them to be easy and easily done or with compounds that are difficult to obtain for a normal person? your idea is very creative; would you like other ones to be simpler or so hard that only she knows how to unlock them? try to describe how do you want the locks to affect her story, or how does she feel about opening them. does she find it enjoyable? and lastly, do you focus solely on the reaction, or could the solution be a product of one?

my original idea was for her to have many hard to find elements. so it would be extremely dangerous if someone random popped open her box, releasing radioactive materiel's! so it would be important that only she could open the box. I like the idea of the solution being a product of one, like if she unlocked the first lock and the reaction produced a liquid and after combining that with another element she pored that into the second lock and so on. I don't know how the box would affect her story, its mainly a container for things she can use. although part of her story is that she cant survive without radiation. as if she was sick and that was the medicine. so it would be extremely important for her to carry radioactive elements with her. As for how she feels about opening them, it would probably depend on the situation but under normal circumstances maybe she would enjoy it? maybe she likes puzzles. If you have any ideas about what reactions could open the locks I would love to hear them! you have been a ton of help!

I was also wondering what elemental reactions would slow down molecules? in other words what elements could she control to affect the speed of molecules? because I think having her able to directly control the speed of molecules would be a bit overpowered!

thanks again for all your help! I look forward to hearing more of your ideas!!!

If you have any ideas about what reactions could open the locks I would love to hear them!

I think one reaction could be changing one element that's hard to melt in normal circumstances, like tungsten, to liquid. the liquid could go to a place where it could unlock the first part.

(ah, this is hard, there's so many possibilities!)

the second one, maybe, could unlock with a small explosion made from sodium's contact with water, somewhere hidden inside the box, where only she could control them.

third one. I think it should be connected to other one of the methods. maybe the explosion could release some energy to fuel another reaction? something along the lines of an anabolic reaction (fusing many compounds into a larger one that's more energetic). or the energy could be used to warm a compound so as to make another one, that would unlock the lock, for example, heating manganese nitrate to make manganese oxide.

those are only my suggestions! I tried to think up the easy methods, but there are plenty of other to choose from! don't be afraid to mix and change something! I can only tell you if a reaction could be possible from a chemical point of view, but the possibilities themselves are yours to decide!

I was also wondering what elemental reactions would slow down molecules? in other words what elements could she control to affect the speed of molecules? because I think having her able to directly control the speed of molecules would be a bit overpowered!

molecules are atoms, so to in order to control the elements, she'd have to control molecules (and thus their speed) as well!

thanks again so much! these are some awesome ideas!