• Question: How Many Different Chemicals Are There In The World?

    Asked by coombes27 to Ben, Clare, Ezzy, Mario, Sam on 16 Mar 2012.
    • Photo: Mario Campanelli

      Mario Campanelli answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      there are 92 elements in the periodic table, and you can make probably millions of combinations between them

    • Photo: Sam Vinko

      Sam Vinko answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      The number of stable different elements is limited (to 92 in nature, but we hope can make others), but putting them together to form chemicals allows for a virtually infinite variety of combinations.

    • Photo: Ben Smart

      Ben Smart answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      Loads! There will be loads that we don’t even know about yet too. All chemicals are made up of the 92 elements you can find in nature, but you can combine those elements in lots of different ways to create lots of different chemicals.

    • Photo: Elizabeth Pearson

      Elizabeth Pearson answered on 16 Mar 2012:


      Technically there are more than 92 elements. It’s just that there are 92 which occur naturally. There are rules to how they can bond together though and there are many ways they can. Hydrocarbons, based on hydrogen and carbon, have a huge number of possible combinations. There are millions of phydrocarbons alone.

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