Science Essay: The Element of Silver

             Of the many elements discovered in the past years, Silver is a species that catches my eye. Silver has been known since ancient times. I love silver because it's the only thing I wear when it comes to jewelry, but my love for this element had grown since I've learned how much more we use silver in our everyday lives. A few things that interest me about this element are silver itself, the uses of silver, the compounds that it forms, and the uses of those compounds.
             The first major source of silver was discovered in 4000 B.C. in what we today call Turkey. Pure silver is nearly white. The texture of this element is soft, lustrous, ductile, and malleable. Silver is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. Many of its properties resemble those of gold, copper, lead, and zinc. Silver has names in different cultures. The French call it Argent. The German name for it is Silber. The Italian name for silver is Argento, and the Spanish name for silver is Plata. Elements usually have symbols that correspond with the name of the element. For example, the symbol for Magnesium is Mg. The symbol for Oxygen is O. Because silver comes from the Latin word Argentum, the symbol for silver is Ag. Silver has an atomic number of 47 with a mass of 107.868. According to the periodic table, silver occurs in group11 and period 5. This section of the periodic table is called the Transition Metals. This element usually occurs in the metallic state. The crystal structure of silver is face-centered cubic. The density of this element is 10.5 g/cm3, and the atomic volume is 10.3 cm3/mol. Silver melts at 961.93oC and boils at 2212oC. Silver has a hardness of 3.25 months. In the nucleus, there are sixty-one neutrons, forty-seven protons, and forty-seven electrons. The electronic configuration of silver is [Kr] 4d105s1. The structure of the atom contains 5 shells around the nucleus. There are two electrons in the first shell, eight electrons in the second shell,...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Science Essay: The Element of Silver. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:08, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/13408.html