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What the name means: Zinc may come from the German word Zinke, meaning spike or sharp edge. Anther German word, Zinn, meaning Tin may have given rise to the word zink as meaning "something like tin". Zinc was probably named by the alchemist Georgius Agricola in 1546.
Who identified zinc?: Zinc has been used since prehistoric times and there is evidence that it was used in India and China before 1500BC. The Roman, Pliny the Elder, wrote about calamine (zinc carbonate) helping to heal wounds. The Persians extracted zinc metal from its compounds in 1374. The metal was isolated in the west by Andreas Marggraf in 1746, but it was Antoine Lavoisier, in 1789, who first identified zinc as a metal.
STP = standard temperature and pressure.
About zinc: Zinc is a white-blue metal that is extracted from its compounds, zinc oxide and zinc carbonate. It has a wide variety of uses, one of which is to galvanize steel. This involves coating the steel in a thin layer of zinc metal to prevent corrosion. Zinc is also important when mixed with other metals to form alloys. Copper and zinc are used to form the alloy, brass.
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