

A calcium atom has twenty electrons, arranged in the electron configuration 4s 2. Characteristics ClassificationĬalcium is a very ductile silvery metal (sometimes described as pale yellow) whose properties are very similar to the heavier elements in its group, strontium, barium, and radium. Calcium ions outside cells are important for maintaining the potential difference across excitable cell membranes, protein synthesis, and bone formation. As electrolytes, calcium ions (Ca 2+) play a vital role in the physiological and biochemical processes of organisms and cells: in signal transduction pathways where they act as a second messenger in neurotransmitter release from neurons in contraction of all muscle cell types as cofactors in many enzymes and in fertilization. On the other hand, the metal in pure form has few applications due to its high reactivity still, in small quantities it is often used as an alloying component in steelmaking, and sometimes, as a calcium–lead alloy, in making automotive batteries.Ĭalcium is the most abundant metal and the fifth-most abundant element in the human body. 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.

Pure calcium was isolated in 1808 via electrolysis of its oxide by Humphry Davy, who named the element. Some calcium compounds were known to the ancients, though their chemistry was unknown until the seventeenth century. The name derives from Latin calx " lime", which was obtained from heating limestone. The most common calcium compound on Earth is calcium carbonate, found in limestone and the fossilised remnants of early sea life gypsum, anhydrite, fluorite, and apatite are also sources of calcium. It is the fifth most abundant element in Earth's crust, and the third most abundant metal, after iron and aluminium.

Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to its heavier homologues strontium and barium. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Magnesia, a district of Eastern Thessaly in GreeceĪlumina, from Latin alumen (gen.Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. Symbol Na is derived from Neo-Latin natrium, coined from German Natron, ' natron'.Greek elements hydro- and -gen, ' water-forming'īeryl, a mineral (ultimately from the name of Belur in southern India) īorax, a mineral (from Arabic bawraq, Middle Persian * bōrag) For more detailed information about the origins of element names, see List of chemical element name etymologies. Like the periodic table, the list below organizes the elements by the number of protons in their atoms it can also be organized by other properties, such as atomic weight, density, and electronegativity.
#Ca element and c element formula full#
It is a tabular arrangement of the elements by their chemical properties that usually uses abbreviated chemical symbols in place of full element names, but the linear list format presented here is also useful. The definitive visualisation of all 118 elements is the periodic table of the elements, whose history along the principles of the periodic law was one of the founding developments of modern chemistry.

A chemical element, often simply called an element, is a type of atom which has the same number of protons in its atomic nucleus (i.e., the same atomic number, or Z). This is a list of the 118 chemical elements that have been identified as of 2023. List of the 118 identified chemical elements
