In our Atoms unit, we were learning mainly about the electrons, protons, and neutrons, but now we are learning about the different metals.

Today we watched a video about the metals, which was really interesting. It only covered the more common ones, like the element metals, like gold and iron, but also the alloys, like bronze and steel.

I learned many things about gold, which is that it is extremely different from other metals, as it is resistant to other metals and elements, which means it does not rust. It doesn’t like to me around other metals, because the 79 protons bring the electrons closer to it, making it harder for it to bond with other elements, like oxygen, so that is why it is very different.

The video also talked about bronze, and how it is found in malachite, a really green mineral. The way to extract bronze from the stone is really mind-blowing, because if you grind the malachite into powder and put it in a fire, the fire will turn green! I thought that was really interesting.

The last part the video talked about was iron, and how you can get it into the pure metal. The formula was to use a really big kiln like structure, that heated up the metal until it melted, which was how smelting worked. I had a connection to this, which was like smelting iron ore, which iron in stone, into iron ingots using a blast furnace.

I thought this video was super interesting, and I can’t wait to watch more of these science videos.