The New Road

I was surprised that I reached 99%. I guess it helps if you have memorized the periodic table and know your physics. :)
I wonder what I missed? I was sure that a number of my scores were sub-nerd.

Well I'm still proud to be a nerd. I remember that the opposition attempted to uses the term as a political weapon only to find that I added "City Council Nerd" to my title. :-)

I will admit, however, that I found that my cache of of the periodic table to be lossy. I had to really think about Mn. 10 years ago I would have nailed it as fast as Xe or Cs.

I am normally not someone who memorizes things. But the effort I made to detain information about the elements has paid off many times over. And through frequent use I managed to lock in most of the table into my memory.

Maybe it is time to refresh my element cache? I have found that I draw on my knowledge of the periodic table in unexpected ways. My effort have paid off many times over!

I suppose it depends on one's definition of terms like geek and nerd (not the more physically descriptive 'pencil neck'). But I don't think being a nerd has anything to do with the periodic table.

Though I am curious as to what benefits you believe you have gained from memorizing it. Was it just the act of some amount of memorization? Or was it something particular to the periodic table?

> Was it just the act of some amount of memorization?

An action of memorization? Definitely not. In fact, I am disinclined to just memorize things. Lack of interest in memorization has been a problem for me in a number of subjects. But that is another topic altogether.

I learned the periodic table of the elements because I used it. At first, I was interested in learning about the elements as the building blocks for nearly everything else we encounter. The periodic table provided a grid on which properties and uses of elements could be attached. That knowledge has been useful in understanding materials/chemicals/compounds; of solids, liquids, gases, etc.: their uses, properties, and interactions with other materials.

Just the other day I had to deal with the warping of a metal case due to the differential expansion of copper and aluminum, as well as the chemical interaction of the interface between them. Before that: explaining why silicon glass and fluorite glass lenses were different. Moreover, before that: gases in auto emissions...