Transition metal · element 42
Molybdenum
Hard at any temperature. Named after lead by mistake.
Only 0.3% of people are Molybdenum. (estimated)
If you're Molybdenum
You are the one who keeps working when everything else softens. Tough, patient, easy to mistake for something ordinary, and nothing like it.
Molybdenum keeps steel strong at high temperatures; its name comes from the Greek for lead because miners confused the two.
How to get along with Molybdenum
Do
- Hand them the thing that's melting everyone else.
- Say what's expected and leave them to it.
- Don't mistake them for lead.
Don't
- Don't assume the ordinary look means ordinary limits.
- Don't micromanage; it softens nothing.
When it goes wrong: They stay hard at any temperature. If they gave way, something else was very wrong.
Atomic profile
Every element is placed on six personality dimensions derived from its chemistry. Your answers are placed on the same six, and the closest element wins. How the scoring works
- Reactivity
- 3
- Sociability
- 6
- Stability
- 10
- Energy
- 4
- Rarity
- 5
- Warmth
- 5
Molybdenum in literature
- Joe the Fat Boy — The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens (1837)
- Mrs. Ramsay — To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf (1927)
- Hagen — Nibelungenlied, Anonymous (1200)
Characters from public-domain works, chosen for the same traits. Company, not a verdict.
Closest personalities
The elements whose profiles sit nearest to Molybdenum's. If you got Molybdenum, one of these was probably your runner-up.
Other transition metals
ScScandiumTiTitaniumVVanadiumCrChromiumMnManganeseFeIronCoCobaltNiNickelCuCopperZnZincYYttriumZrZirconiumNbNiobiumTcTechnetiumRuRutheniumRhRhodiumPdPalladiumAgSilverCdCadmiumHfHafniumTaTantalumWTungstenReRheniumOsOsmiumIrIridiumPtPlatinumAuGoldHgMercuryRfRutherfordiumDbDubniumSgSeaborgiumBhBohriumHsHassiumMtMeitneriumDsDarmstadtiumRgRoentgeniumCnCopernicium