Ramsay and the Discovery of the Noble Gases

William Ramsay noticed nitrogen from air was denser than nitrogen from chemicals and chased the difference to argon in 1894. He then found helium on Earth, and later neon, krypton, and xenon. A whole column of inert gases appeared in the periodic table. Ramsay earned the 1904 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the table gained its final family..

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