17 Facts About Calcium

Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20.

Calcium compounds are widely used in many industries: in foods and pharmaceuticals for calcium supplementation, in the paper industry as bleaches, as components in cement and electrical insulators, and in the manufacture of soaps.

Calcium is the most abundant metal and the fifth-most abundant element in the human body.

Calcium is a very ductile silvery metal whose properties are very similar to the heavier elements in its group, strontium, barium, and radium.

Calcium is harder than lead but can be cut with a knife with effort.

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Calcium hydroxide, Ca2, is a strong base, though it is not as strong as the hydroxides of strontium, barium or the alkali metals.

Calcium is readily complexed by oxygen chelates such as EDTA and polyphosphates, which are useful in analytic chemistry and removing calcium ions from hard water.

Calcium is the first element to have six naturally occurring isotopes.

Calcium is the only element to have two primordial doubly magic isotopes.

Calcium compounds were known for millennia, although their chemical makeup was not understood until the 17th century.

Calcium cycling provides a link between tectonics, climate, and the carbon cycle.

Calcium is used in maintenance-free automotive batteries, in which the use of 0.

Calcium is used to strengthen aluminium alloys used for bearings, for the control of graphitic carbon in cast iron, and to remove bismuth impurities from lead.

Calcium metal is found in some drain cleaners, where it functions to generate heat and calcium hydroxide that saponifies the fats and liquefies the proteins that block drains.

Calcium lactobionate is a white powder that is used as a suspending agent for pharmaceuticals.

Calcium is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.

Calcium reacts exothermically with water and acids, calcium metal coming into contact with bodily moisture results in severe corrosive irritation.