Sometimes kids are just smarter than us.
At seven years old, my next guest
already knows every single element on the periodic table.
From Denver, Colorado, please welcome Finn Hathaway.
[APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC - BRUNO MARS, "TREASURE"]
(SINGING) That is what you are.
You're my golden star.
Ready to make my wish come true.
If you let me treasure you.
If you let me treasure--
Finn, you were going to be interviewing me?
It was like you were the host of the show all of a sudden.
Hi, Finn.
Uh, hi.
Hi.
OK, so you're seven years old.
Uh-huh.
And I like your glasses first of all.
Thank you.
They're really great.
Did you lose some teeth.
I see there's teeth missing.
Uh-huh.
How many teeth?
Six.
These two have already grown in.
OK, that's good.
And then two have not grown in yet?
Yes.
Yeah, and then have you--
did you put the teeth under the pillow for the tooth fairy?
No.
No?
Why not?
Because I just haven't done it quite yet.
Oh, OK.
How did you get interested in the periodic table?
Well, I liked math for a while.
And I heard that chemistry had a lot of mathematics
in it, so I decided to get interested in it.
Chemistry?
Uh-huh.
You got interested in chemistry?
How old were you?
Six.
Sure.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
I don't think I ever even got into chemistry.
And so all right, I'm going to quiz you on some things
because this is really impressive.
Let's talk about-- what's the name of this element?
Oganesson.
Mm-hm.
And what's the atomic number?
118.
OK, and what do you know about this?
It's the heaviest element yet made.
OK, all right.
What is this one?
Europium.
OK.
What's the atomic number?
63.
What do you know about it?
It glows under ultraviolet lights.
And it's named after?
The continent of Europe.
Yep, that seems right.
[LAUGHTER]
What's the name of this?
Silicone.
What's the atomic number?
14.
And what do you know about it?
It's one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust,
about 27%.
Wow, I didn't know that.
All right, what about this one?
Titanium.
What do you know about it?
I know that titanium is used and is just as strong as steel
but much lighter.
OK, and then, let me see.
What is-- what's this one?
Technetium.
OK, and what do you know about it?
That is the lightest radioactive element.
OK, what does radioactive mean?
Radioactive means that its atoms are unstable.
Parts of the nucleus can shoot out
with an alpha particles, beta particles, or gamma rays.
That's right.
[LAUGHTER]
Checking that you know that.
All right, now, so I'm going to quiz you
on-- because you were telling me things.
But now I want to know if you know just by the atomic number.
What's 77?
Iridium.
That's right.
What is 37?
Rubidium.
38?
Strontium.
5?
Boron.
32?
Germanium.
31?
Gallium.
36?
36 is Crypton.
72?
72 is Hafnium.
Wow, that is unbelievable.
[APPLAUSE]
That's amazing.
All right, so I ask what somebody what this is, and is
this what you're elements?
What do you have in there?
So my [INAUDIBLE] to show is this one is a piece of bismuth.
So bismuth is the 83rd element.
And when it's crystallized, it forms into this.
It's very colorful.
Right, it's nice.
If somebody says that's mine, you
go no, it's none of your business.
[INAUDIBLE]
[LAUGHTER]
What else do you have in there?
I have this piece of copper.
And I got this at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
So this is like some sculpted copper I got there,
and it's pretty cool.
Yeah, it's very cool.
And what-- you don't have platinum, right?
No.
Why not?
Because it's very rare and very expensive.
It is?
So you don't have any in there?
No.
What if I gave you platinum?
I would put it in.
OK.
[LAUGHTER]
Come over here with me, all right, Finn.
OK.
Come see.
We didn't realize how expensive it was.
So we wanted to buy you platinum,
but it's really expensive, Finn.
It's very, very expensive.
Come around here.
You can stand on here.
And that's what we could afford.
[LAUGHTER]
[APPLAUSE]
It's platinum.
Thank you.
That is [INAUDIBLE].
There you go.
That is really tiny.
It is very pretty.
It is tiny, but you can sell that someday.
And you'll be OK.