Mendeleev's Country Table (2) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Thulium

Bounded by the Caspian Sea on the west and sitting above Iran and Afghanistan, Turkmenistan (country code: TM) is a former Soviet republic. It rates poorly for human rights, although with large reserves of natural gas, the government provides free electricity, water and natural gas. Thulium (symbol: Tm) is a rare metal with some specialist uses. Euro banknotes contain some as an anti-counterfeit measure due to the colour it fluoresces at.

Answer: Aluminum

A Balkan country, Albania sits on the eastern shores of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas on Greece's north-west border. Tirana is both capital and largest city. Founded in 1614 by an Ottoman general, it was declared capital following the country's declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912. Relatively rich in mineral resources, bauxite (aluminium's precursor) is one of them, albeit a minor one in terms of world production.

The metal also shares its chemical symbol (Al) with Albania's country code (AL).

Answer: Curium

Cameroon (country code: CM) is an African country sitting on the west coast at the transition point between Central and West Africa. The centrally-located Yaoundé was chosen to be the colony's capital by France in 1922 and remained so after independence in 1960. With a half-life of 15.6 million years, there is unlikely to be any naturally-occurring curium although it is a waste product of nuclear weapons testing. Curium is named after the scientists Marie and Pierre Curie.

The chemical symbol Cm is shared with Cameroon's country code.

Answer: Francium

Roman general Julius Caesar is the first person to mention the settlement which became Paris, capital of France. The name comes from a Gallic tribe, the Parisii who had lived there since the Iron Age. Francium is one of those elements whose existence was predicted by Mendeleev. It is not stable but trace amounts occur in uranium, suggesting roughly an ounce (28.3g) of naturally-occurring francium in the Earth's crust. The element was named by a French physicist and student of Marie Curie after the country France.

Answer: Ruthenium

Moscow is the biggest city in Europe by various measures and has been a capital since 1147, except for two centuries when Saint Petersburg became the Russian capital (country code: RU). Discovered by a Russian scientist and named after the country, the platinum-group metal ruthenium (symbol: Ru) is mostly used in electronics and as a catalyst. Most production comes as a by-product of nickel and copper processing in South Africa although Russia has similar levels of mineral reserves.

Answer: Gold

Canberra, capital of Australia, was built as a compromise solution when Australia became federated in 1901. As such it is a planned city and is unusual for Australia in being overlooked by snow-capped mountains in winter. Gold has the chemical symbol Au, the letters of which are shared with Australia (country code: AU). Australia has had its share of gold rushes and Moliagul in Victoria, Australia is the location for the largest gold nugget found in 1869, namely the 'Welcome Stranger', weighing about 2,520 troy ounces (78 kg or 172 lb).

Answer: Livermorium

The capital Riga accounts for about a third of Latvia's (country code: LV) population. It was founded in 1201 at the mouth of the Daugava where it meets the Baltic Sea and was at one time part of the Hanseatic League for trading. It has been controlled at different times by the Germans, Poles, Swedes and Russians, regaining its independence in 1991. Livermorium is the synthetic chemical element with the symbol Lv. Named after the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US, it was created in experiments between 2000 and 2006 in collaboration with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia. Extremely radioactive, the longest-lived isotope has a half-life of about 80 milliseconds.

Answer: Bromine

Founded in 1960 to replace Rio de Janeiro as capital of Brazil (country code: BR), the planned city Brasilia is shaped like an aeroplane. Moving the capital to a more central location and naming it 'Brasilia' was proposed in the 1820s. Bromine (symbol: Br) is a volatile liquid at room temperature. Bromine production tends to be from salt lakes and brine wells. The most common source in Brazil is likely to be Brazil nuts, which has high levels for a food. There is research indicating bromine has a role in collagen synthesis, immunity, REM sleep and neurological signalling.

Answer: Scandium

Victoria is the capital and largest city in the Seychelles (country code: SC) in the Indian Ocean. It was actually established by French colonists as L'Établissement in 1778, however the British took over and renamed it in 1841 after Queen Victoria. Scandium (symbol: Sc) is another of those chemical elements predicted by Mendeleev.

It was found by a Swedish team who named it after the Latin 'Scandia' (meaning Scandinavia). There is no obvious connection with the Seychelles unless the country happens to have some Russian MiG-21 or MiG-29 aircraft in which there are some parts made with aluminium-scandium alloys.

Answer: Praseodymium

Capital of the Caribbean archipelago of Puerto Rico, San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521. San Juan means Saint John. The Spanish mined the island mostly for gold but there were richer deposits elsewhere. Praseodymium (symbol: Pr) is considered a rare earth element and China is the dominant supplier.

It has various specialist uses, sometimes by itself and sometimes combined with other lanthanides which share similar properties. Uses include in high-powered magnets, carbon arc lamps, optics and photonics.