Project on Potassium.

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Potassium (k)

Basic Information

Potassium is the 19th element on the periodic table of elements with, as suggested on the table has the atomic number of 19 and its atomic mass is 39.0983. The symbol used to represent Potassium and also used in equations is “K”.

Periodic table symbol of potassium. Atom number is top left, atomic mass is top right and symbol in the middle.

Details and further information

Potassium was discovered in 1807 but was speculated to exist as far back as 1702. Humphrey Davy born in Penzance, Cornwall in the UK was a British chemist who was also an inventor who discovered many other elements as well most notably sodium derived and separated potassium from caustic potash an artificial compound. Davy separated potassium with electrolysis a method now commonly used for experiments in schools and labs.

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Electrolysis setup

The origin of the elements name potassium comes from the Dutch word “potash”. Its chemical symbol, “K”, comes from the Arabic word al-qalya, meaning plant-ashes, formed into the Latin word "kalium", most likely because it is an alkali metal (alkali is a group of metals which have similar characteristics e.g. silver colour and soft

Physical Properties

The properties of potassium are that it consists of 19 electrons and 19 protons in its unchanged state with 20 neutrons. It is also likely to lose an electron to other elements then to ...

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