Need info. on Zinc for a chemistry project

Hi, Katie. Teachers write to us begging us to "please just tell the students to do their own homework". But if you research the answers to some of your questions, but get stumped by a few, I'm sure people will help.

Please phrase your questions as if you are finding most answers but need one or two clues, as opposed to simply posting your entire assignment in hopes of someone doing it for you :-)

Good luck!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2001

A. Hello Katie!

A source of the information you seek is either www.webelements.com, or www.chemicalelements.com

Webelements is a superb periodic table brimming with information, put together by Mark Winter at Sheffield University in the UK. Chemical Elements was developed by Yinon Bentor, a student, for a science fair project!

Another, possibly more enjoyable periodic table is The Comic Book Periodic Table, at www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/

YOU should be able to find out all YOU want to know about zinc at these sites.

Good luck!

Lee Gearhart
metallurgist - E. Aurora, New York
2001

A. Katie,

You might try running a search for the website of the Zinc Industry Council.

Gene Packman
process supplier - Great Neck, New York
2001

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Katie,

In adding to the last question, wasn't zinc found in 1746, not 1500? I was just wondering.Thanks.

Tamber P [last name deleted for privacy by Editor]
- Shelby Twp., Michigan
2006

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Although it is often impossible to put a fine point on such answers, Tiffany and Tamber, Andreas Marggraf produced pure zinc from calamine, and he lived from 1709-1782. So I'd say your 1746 date is the right one, Tamber, and the date of 1500 found on webelements.com is apparently wrong.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2006

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A. Let me be an old fogey and say that some questions are better answered at a library than by a web search, Tanya -- books have a far deeper pattern of organization than websites, and are far more accurate. Presumably you've seen the many internet references to Marggraf discovering zinc in 1500 -- although he wasn't born until 1709. A book author doesn't often make silly mistakes like that.

Zinc - The Metal, Its Alloys and Compounds [affil link on Amazon ] by C.H. Mathewson has an 8-page historical background (which never even mentions Andreas Marggraf); and another source says chemist Anton von Swab did the exact same experiment four years earlier, unbeknownst to Marggraf.

Marggraf didn't exactly "discover" zinc; what he did was determine that when calamine is heated in the presence of carbon, the carbon "reduces" the zinc content to metallic zinc. Presumably he saw metallic zinc in his beakers after he did the experiment, and his contribution was more along the lines of isolating zinc from other metals, and describing a reasonable way of getting relatively pure zinc, than actually "discovering" it since it had already been around for a while. Good luck with the assignment!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2006

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2007

I just finished saying that Anton von Swab did that, Chelsea :-)

Problem is, can you trust what you read in public forums? I'd use them as helpful guides towards what to look for. So try to get to a library and find a book with info about him. But, if that's not going to happen, google his name. Good luck!

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

Hi, Hallie. Thanks. Yes, that is "for sure fact". But it's also for sure fact that Columbus discovered America, and for sure fact that there were already people here when he arrived :-)

The problem is that "discovered" may not the same thing as "the first person to ever know about".

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
May 2008

Hi, Cecilia. Please let us know what you find out because it is perfectly possible that you are right. Back in 1374, discoveries weren't Twittered -- things were discovered in parallel in different areas of the world.

To put it in perspective, Vasco DeGama wouldn't reach India for the first time until 124 years later. In fact, the first of the famous Western explorers, Prince Henry the Navigator, wasn't even born yet. Even if land routes weren't difficult due to the distance and terrain, the most powerful nation in the world, Persia, sworn enemy to the Europeans through 200 years of Crusades, lay between them. Communication of discoveries between India and Europe was virtually impossible.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 9, 2009

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March 9, 2010

Hi, Brianna. When your teacher asks you a question like this, there are three possibilities --

• First: you already know the answer;
• Second: you don't know the answer, but will have to research it or calculate it;
• Third: you don't really even understand the question.

It is crucially important for your success in school that you instantly recognize the difference between the second and third possibility. Because if you don't understand his/her question, you can't possibly get the right answer except by a lucky guess. When you are in situation three, you have to learn to tell your teacher that you don't understand the question.

There are 3 common states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Solids like bricks have shape and size. Liquids like water have size but no fixed shape. Gases like air have neither size nor shape, they will expand to fill the available space. Most metals at room temperature are solids, including zinc. But most will melt to liquids and finally vaporize to gas if the temperature is hot enough.

Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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Hi, Makayla.

Education is not about answers on silver platters, ready for cutting and pasting. It's about fighting and struggling to study and comprehend. So please struggle to phrase your question in terms of what has already been said on the page. Thanks.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 22, 2011