Any of a family of (almost) completely unreactive, colorless,
and odorless elements. The noble gases are
(in order of increasing atomic number):
The noble gases occupy group 0 (or group 18, depending on
the scheme adopted) of the periodic table.
Their extremely low reactivity is due to the fact that their outer electron
shells are complete (having two electrons
in the case of helium and eight electrons in the case of the other inert
elements). Being already complete, the electron shells of noble gases "seek"
neither to lose electrons or gain them during chemical reactions and thus
tend not to react at all.
|A xenon atom. Notice that the outer
electron shell has 8 electrons and is therefore full. This makes xenon
extremely unreactive. Credit: The
Open Door Website
It was thought formerly that all of these elements were completely inert.
But it's now known that argon, krypton, xenon, and radon do form
compounds (most notably fluorides) under certain circumstances. The noble
gases are also called inert gases or rare gases, although
argon and helium occur in substantial quantities in Earth's atmosphere (one
percent in the case of argon). They are prepared by fractional distillation
of liquid air, except helium and radon.
Discharges of the noble gases
The noble gases glow brightly when an electric discharge
is passed through them, and so are used as advertising signs: neon tubes
glow red, xenon blue, and krypton bluish-white; argon tubes glow pale red
at low pressures, blue at high pressures.