Silicon is a chemical element with symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a tetravalent metalloid, more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table. Controversy about silicon's character dates to its discovery.
Three reasons Silicon stands out
1
Primary component of computer chips.
2
It is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, after oxygen.
3
Ordinary beach sand is mostly made of its dioxide compound.
The crystal that learned to calculate
Silicon links the mineral world to digital technology. In rocks it usually appears bonded to oxygen; in a purified crystal, tiny additions of other elements precisely tune its electrical behavior. Billions of microscopic silicon switches can therefore be patterned onto a chip and coordinated into a computer.
Recognizing Silicon in Elementle
If Silicon is the mystery element, guesses below atomic number 14 point up and guesses above it point down. Its symbol is Si: a green letter matches the same position in that symbol, while a yellow letter belongs in another position.
The family clue turns green for metalloid guesses. Compare Boron (B), number 5 and Germanium (Ge), number 32: they share the family clue, but their atomic numbers and symbols help you tell them apart.
Values are reference data, not a specification for every temperature, pressure, or allotrope. Unknown properties are left unavailable. Superheavy-element predictions remain uncertain.
The introduction and original editorial story are adapted from Wikipedia contributors via Periodic-Table-JSON. Element descriptions and their adaptations are available under CC BY-SA 3.0. Numerical attributes use the PubChem periodic-table dataset, retrieved September 22, 2026.