Carbon, as the compound carbon dioxide, gets some bad press for its effects on climate – and so it should! But that is pretty harsh on the element carbon (and the element oxygen for that point). Carbon is the fifteenth most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, and the fourth most abundant in the Universe. …
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Series:Elements
Copper…
After iron and aluminium, copper is probably the third most important industrial metal. It is used in electrical wiring and for printed circuit boards (PCB). The board is completely coated in copper then copper is etched away to leave the path that the electricity needs to follow. Copper is also used for plumbing although it is …
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Gold Part Two…
[This is follow up to Gold Part One.] A pupil asked… Will the earth naturally produce more gold for us to extract? How long will this take? How long is the half-life of gold and what does it decompose into? Would it be possible to industrially produce gold from different atoms? A. Pupil Esq. When …
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Aluminium…
You should read the (very slightly eccentric) post from a few years ago – Foiled Again. It might also be worthwhile checking the other posts in the series – Elements. Aluminium is the most abundant metal element in the Earth’s crust. Despite this, no known plant or animal uses aluminium compounds to perform any biological …
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Lithium…
Lithium is the third element on the periodic table and first metal. It sits in Group I with the other reactive metals such as sodium and potassium. It is soft, low density and highly reactive – although the least so of the alkali metals. Apparently they used to put lithium citrate into 7-Up although they no …
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Foiled Again…
Aluminium is a typical metal in that it is… Shiny An excellent conductor of electricity An excellent conductor of heat Malleable (meaning it can be bent and shaped without snapping) Ductile (meaning it can be drawn out into wires and rolled into foil) In other ways it is not very typical. It has quite a …
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The Elements…
. You can try your hand at this quiz that tests your knowledge of all the symbols and elements. It is not easy but you can customise it by clicking on ‘More options please’ and telling it which elements you want included. You should know the first 20 but try to include a few others …
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Sodium & Water…
I am clearly too lazy to do this properly as I am just posting Periodic Videos’ latest offering. I can’t wait to see the reactions with potassium, rubidium and caesium. I talked about buying a high speed camera a few weeks ago. Now that we have our shiny new iMac it would be great to …
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Gallium…
Another offering from the brilliant Periodic Table of Videos guys, this time about gallium. Gallium is a metal element but not one that we get to play with in the lab. After watching this I want to get a sample for school as it looks like a fun substance. Questions… What other metal is named after the same place …
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Zirconium…
Zirconium is the 40th element on the periodic table; a metal with the symbol Zr. It is similar to titanium and is used in alloys where its resistance to corrosion will be helpful. It has been in the news recently as zirconium alloys are used to hold the uranium pellets in the boiling water reactors found in the …
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