Do you ever grab a soda can or spot an airplane high up in the sky? If you have, you may have noticed that steel in coils is what both of these things are made of — shiny metal! Aluminum is a remarkable metal; it combines a low density (light weight) with high strength. So you can use it for various product types without being too thick. One thing you will most likely notice how shiny it is, so that we can all agree looks great, and how easily it can be formed into different things. The name aluminum, like any other "element" scientists say there is: something made from only one type of atom – the smallest building block of everything you see around you. By knowing about aluminium, we also learn how it can be present in a lot of things we use every day.
Aluminium (British variant spelling) is used for many fun items that we see and utilize everyday. Maybe you use an coil of steel water bottle that keeps your drink cold, or you may be cooking with some aluminum pans to keep your food from sticking. This applies to airplanes and automobiles which also utilize aluminum, in order to reduce weight on them. This allows them to burn less petrol while they are in motion. Even electronic items such as laptops, smartphones and even tablets use aluminum! This not only keeps these devices strong, it also helps prevent overheating. Aluminum is used even in things that should be fun like baseball bats and bike frames, to make them lighter so they are easier to lift or use. These varied applications of aluminum showcase the significance of this metal in our lives, from transport to our sport!
Producing aluminum is a difficult job and that could have great effects on the Environment. Production of aluminum releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases. These gases can make pollution that is bad for our Earth and they can also contribute to warming the Earth. And therefore it is crucial that we discover methods of producing aluminium in an environmentally safe manner. This is a very useful metal which we still want to use but at the same time, we want to protect this planet Earth.
Recycling aluminum is another beneficial thing you can do for the environment. Well, so recycling is basically taking some old aluminum thing — perhaps a soda can you used up yesterday or a two year old piece of junk I throw into the bin one day by anyway, and we melt it down instead of throwing away, and create new items from that molten metal. It is a much more sustainable process for the planet since recycling aluminium uses less energy and generates less pollution than manufacturing new aluminium from scratch. For example, recycling only a single aluminum can means saving the energy needed to power a TV for three hours. That is a significant amount of energy savings! When we recycle, we can reduce the waste and protect our planet to be a better place for all of us.
Aluminum has been known to scientists for many years but it was very difficult, even impossible, to make in the past. Aluminum was much rarer than gold, and so rare that in some periods of history it was even valued more than gold! It took until the 1800s for scientists to discover how to create aluminum. This took a lot of experiments and the study of chemical reactions — when one thing changes to become something new. Electricity was, after all, the trick of the Magi that allowed them to separate aluminum from other elements. Now, terrifyingly complicated as that process was back at the time, over the years— and through a bazillion Bill Nye science episodes— we figured out how to make aluminum in an easier and cheaper way so that today we enjoy things like cans with… colas in from our local grocery stores!
EN
AR
HR
CS
DA
NL
FI
FR
DE
EL
IT
JA
KO
NO
PL
PT
RU
ES
TL
ID
SR
SK
UK
VI
SQ
HU
MT
TH
TR
FA
MS
MK
HY
AZ
KM
LA
MN
MY
KK
UZ
