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atomic number 20 is nature ’s most noted structural fabric . Indeed , calcium is a necessary component of all living things and is also abundant in many non - surviving things , particularly those that help support life , such as soil and pee . Teeth , sea shield , bones and cave stalactites are all products of atomic number 20 .
Interestingly , atomic number 20 seems to come in fifth place wherever it goes : It is the 5th most abundant element by pot in the Earth ’s insolence ( after oxygen , Si , Al and iron ) ; the 5th most abundant resolve ion in brine ( after atomic number 11 , chloride , atomic number 12 and sulfate ) ; and the fifth most abundant element in the human consistency ( after oxygen , carbon , hydrogen and nitrogen ) . It is , however , the most abundantmetallicelement in the human body , 99 percent of which can be found in our bones and teeth ( about 2 lbs . of it ! ) , according toChemicool .
Calcium is essential for building healthy teeth and strong bones.
In its pure primary country , atomic number 20 is a soft , silvery - white alkaline earth metal . It is important to observe , however , that atomic number 20 is never discover in this disjunct state in nature , but exists instead in chemical compound . Calcium compounds can be plant in a diverseness of mineral , including limestone ( calcium carbonate ) , gypsum ( calcium sulfate ) and fluorite ( atomic number 20 fluoride ) , according toChemicool . Calcium do up about 4.2 percent of the Earth ’s insolence by system of weights .
for isolate pure atomic number 20 , it must be extracted through electrolysis , a technique that use a verbatim electrical current to severalise elements from their naturally happen source . Once isolated , calcium is quite responsive and will form a grayish - white oxide and nitride app when exposed to zephyr .
Calcium ( Ca ) is No . 20 in theperiodic table of the elements , appearing just below magnesium in the same column ( Group IIA ) as the other alkaline world metals ( a group of metals that are more chemically responsive than most metallic element ) . Calcium comes from the Romance word " calx , " meaninglime . This is not a address to the fruit , but rather calcium oxide ( CaO ) , the utilitarian building stuff derived from heated limestone .
Discovery
In 1808 , Cornish druggist and discoverer Sir Humphry Davy was the first person to successfully isolate calcium . A few other scientist , Magnus Pontin and Jöns Jacob Berzelius , had follow close ; they had been able to raise a calcium dental amalgam after performing electrolysis on a mixture of lime and Hg oxide . This sentence , Davy take over their electrolysis method on the same calcium dental amalgam , but he bestow more lime to the mixture , producing more of the dental amalgam from which he was able to purify away the quicksilver , leaving only atomic number 20 , allot to theRoyal Society of Chemistry .
Once Ca had been successfully isolated , the element was capable to be studied further , revealing its grandness for the survival of all live on things .
Just the facts
Essential mineral
Ca is extremely crucial to the human eubstance . Not only is it vital for bones and teeth , but it assists in muscle cause by carrying message from the wit to all our body part . Cells in all live thing must put across with , or " signal , " one another . Calcium ion move as life-sustaining messengers between these cells and are necessary in all multicellular life story forms . They also assist in the release of internal secretion and enzymes .
In intellectual nourishment , atomic number 20 is found in mineral form . Foods high in atomic number 20 admit dairy farm products — such as Milk River , cheese and yogurt — and some vegetables , such as kale , cresson , spinach plant and Brassica oleracea italica . In orderliness for Ca to absorb properly , it should be taken with vitamin D. Magnesium is also necessary for proper absorption and consumption of calcium in the organic structure . In fact , if we take too much Ca and not enough atomic number 12 , it can cause problems in the organic structure .
Who knew?
Healthy soil
Not only is calcium all-important for human life , but it is also an essential nutrient for plant development . In most types of soils , calcium is made uncommitted to plants through the weathering of mineral . As an alkaline earth alloy , calcium plays a vital purpose in controlling grease pH ( potential of atomic number 1 ) , a meter of the grunge ’s acidity or alkalinity .
The availability of calcium can indirectly affect many microbic processes that are sore to soil pH , such as decomposition , N mineralization and nitrification , said Feike A. Dijkstra , a biogeochemist and associate prof at the Centre for Carbon , Water and Food at the University of Sydney .
Calcium is typically abundant in most soils with some country having naturally mellow or lower level of Ca . " High stage of calcium in the soil are usually found in arid and semi - arid neighborhood where potential evapotranspiration is larger than genuine rain , " Dijkstra told Live Science . " Certain flora have adapt to atomic number 20 - rich and alkaline soils , and are called calcicoles . In contrast , calcifuges are plants that thrive in calcium - poor and acidic soils . "
Problems can come about when there is a pH imbalance in the soil . filth with an overabundance of atomic number 20 can result in the pH being too eminent ( above 7 ) , or alkaline , and this sometimes " reduces the solubility of nutrients such as inorganic phosphate and many micro - nutrients , which can then limit plant ontogenesis , " Dijkstra explained . The bigger problem , however , typically lies in soil with too little calcium , as this results in soil acidification . This can happen when calcium is leached out of the soil through intemperate rain or even more elusive — acid rain .
" During the 1970s and 1980s acid rain was a major job affecting many forests in northeasterly America and Europe , " Dijkstra said . " When acid rain reaches the soil , the proton of these strong acids in acid rainfall replace calcium cations on the exchange sites , and the atomic number 20 is leach out of the ground profile . "
" vitriolic rain kill many forest because the associated soil acidification resulted in increased solubility of aluminum . Aluminum is toxic to plants when it gets above certain concentrations in the soil , " he say . " Since the Acid Rain Program lay down under the 1990 Clean Air Act , acid rainfall has become less of a problem for forests in the northeastern U.S. "
Uses
atomic number 20 compounds have a wide variety of uses , particularly in the making of construction materials . Gypsum , or atomic number 20 sulfate , is used in making cataplasm and also " plasterwork of Paris , " a arduous blank gunpowder that , when mixed with water , hardens into a cast of characters to position fractured clappers .
Limestone , or atomic number 20 carbonate , is used directly as structure textile and indirectly for cementum . When limestone is heated it releases carbon paper dioxide , leaving behind calcium oxide ( calcium oxide ) . When quicklime is mixed with piss , it creates allay lime ( calcium hydroxide ) which is used to make cement . quenched unslaked lime is also used as a soil conditioner and as a water system treatment agent to reduce acidity . When mixed with guts , slake calx overstretch in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and hardens into lime plaster , according to the Royal Society of Chemistry .
Pure atomic number 20 metal is used as a reducing agent in the preparation of other eccentric of metals , such as thorium and uranium and atomic number 40 . It can also be used as an debase broker for aluminum , fuzz , lead and magnesium alloy , or as a deoxidizer , desulfurizer and decarburizer for a variety of ferric and nonferrous alloy .
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