Comment by dogma1138
7 years ago
Hydrogen binds with other hydrogen atoms to create H2 which is the only form of elemental hydrogen you’ll see outside of a lab helium is unique in that its singular atom is its own elemental molecule.
7 years ago
Hydrogen binds with other hydrogen atoms to create H2 which is the only form of elemental hydrogen you’ll see outside of a lab helium is unique in that its singular atom is its own elemental molecule.
It's not unique in that. There are other single-atom molecules.
I don’t know anything about chemistry beyond high school (US public school) but presumably helium is the smallest single-atom molecule you’ll encounter if hydrogen is off the table.
TIL, which others? I thought other noble cases are dimers like Xenon also unlike helium I think all of them now found to form some compounds especially with the fluoride family.
All noble gases exist as monoatomic elements.
They don't form compounds easily but there exist molecules containing at least xenon, radon. Even helium can be made to participate in reactions if pressure is high enough.
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It's not unique. It's just the smallest.
That point has already been well-established in all the other comments.
Im guessing it's the only one that's gaseous at room temperature and pressure?
Edit: Never mind, all the nobel gasses.
nit-pick ... Noble Gas, not "Nobel Gas"
It’s not all the Nobel gases, elemental Xenon is Xe2, so are the rest I think they are also not that Nobel anymore everyone of them besides helium was found to form compounds.
Edit: apparently even helium can form compounds it’s just freaking hard to force it to play nice with others - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_gas_compound
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Did it appear at any point that your parent doesn't know that with the really knowledgeable response he wrote? Why make a comment that doesn't add value?