Q 01/05

What is uranium's atomic number?

A) 82

B) 92

C) 94

D) 88

Answer · why

B) 92

Its symbol is U and it sits in the actinide series; it is the highest-numbered element found naturally in significant amounts.

Q 02/05

Uranium was named after which planet?

A) Neptune

B) Saturn

C) Uranus

D) Pluto

Answer · why

C) Uranus

William Herschel had discovered the planet only eight years before the element was found in 1789.

Q 03/05

Which German chemist is credited with discovering uranium in 1789?

A) Justus von Liebig

B) Robert Bunsen

C) Friedrich Wöhler

D) Martin Heinrich Klaproth

Answer · why

D) Martin Heinrich Klaproth

He precipitated a yellow compound from the ore and thought the black powder he then made was the metal; it was actually an oxide.

Q 04/05

In which mineral was uranium first discovered?

A) Bauxite

B) Pitchblende

C) Galena

D) Cinnabar

Answer · why

B) Pitchblende

Pitchblende is uraninite, uranium's natural oxide, and remains the most common uranium ore.

Q 05/05

Who first isolated uranium metal, in 1841, by heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium?

A) Henri Moissan

B) Eugène-Melchior Péligot

C) Joseph Gay-Lussac

D) Louis Pasteur

Answer · why

B) Eugène-Melchior Péligot

He was professor of analytical chemistry at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers in Paris.

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