The pieces everything is made of by AllenJ

Champion(s):

WangA
hi


Runner(s)-Up:

ChernicoffS
Even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked. —Bob Dylan


Quiz Description

I'm reading Randall Munro's "Thing Explainer," in which the guy responsible for xkcd and the "What If" blog explains stuff with sometimes easy-to-understand language and diagrams. A very entertaining skim-through. Here are some of his entries from the Periodic Table. Which element is he describing? Look ma, I can make a science quiz! (No you can't!) Who said that?

Full Results:

Rank Player Total %ile 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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1 WangA 477 99 15
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2 ChernicoffS 405 97 15
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3 LaudermithM 385 95 15
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4 WolfsbergE 372 93 15
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5 jefe 369 91 15
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6 cprov77 355 89 15
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7 LuskT 347 87 15
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8 GambinoG 345 85 15
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9 chc 339 83 15
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10 RosenbergR 332 81 00
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11 LiptonM 331 79 15
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12 WeikleB 324 77 15
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13 ShapiroA 312 75 15
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14 FryedBetaKappa 310 74 15
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15 MoyseyC 303 72 15
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16 WengerAS 289 70 15
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17 FrankensteinP 286 68 15
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18 GoodmanDL 282 66 15
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19 VenguswamyK 278 64 00
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20 RuizJ 273 62 00
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21 letouj 268 60 15
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22 StahlhutJ 264 58 15
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23 NathanL 263 56 00
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24 Egantx7 254 54 00
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25 HensleyB 241 52 00
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26 milton 238 50 00
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27 NeimanB 231 49 15
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28 CorlissM 229 47 00
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29 RichmondJ 226 45 00
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30 VaccaD 214 43 00
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31 JonesRW 209 40 15
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31 DixonD 209 40 00
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33 AdamKing 196 37 00
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34 Tablesaw 194 35 00
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35 Steve 186 33 00
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36 RaiaB 164 31 00
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37 MatthewsP 159 29 15
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38 bmrafferty 137 27 00
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39 SpraragenM 135 25 00
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41 PruettC 129 22 00
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42 KMG365 128 20 15
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43 HessJa 124 18 00
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44 Hupfen 109 16 00
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45 bdunn02 99 14 00
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46 BlomE 72 10 00
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46 SorensonG 72 10 00
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46 BradburnA 72 10 00
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49 yourname 67 6 00
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50 HallW 57 3 00
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50 osxpert 57 3 00
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52 Consigliari 45 1 00
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Questions:

Burning white rocks.

Click to Reveal Answer
Phosphorus

Air in bright signs made from colored light.

Click to Reveal Answer
Neon

Metal put on food cans to keep water from making holes in them.

Click to Reveal Answer
Tin

Stuff you drink so doctors can look inside your body.

Click to Reveal Answer
Barium

The grey metal at the center of the earth.

Click to Reveal Answer
Nickel

Rock that makes glass blue.

Click to Reveal Answer
Cobalt

Stuff named after a little world named after a god of food kids eat in the morning.

Click to Reveal Answer
Cerium

The rock most well known for killing you if you eat it.

Click to Reveal Answer
Arsenic

Metal laid down in a thin layer when a space rock hit Earth.

Click to Reveal Answer
Iridium

Metal named for a man who helped build the first heavy metal power building.

Click to Reveal Answer
Fermium

The hard metal in the little ball at the end of a writing stick.

Click to Reveal Answer
Osmium

I'm sure this is a nice town, but come on.
(Ok, this is only the description for one element in the book, but I'll give you credit if you can name two for which this description fits.)

Click to Reveal Answer
Ytterbium, Erbium, Yttrium, Terbium