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Nitrogen: The Awesome Element
By Spencer Foreman
7th period chemistry, Mr. Steineker, Eastern High School
What is nitrogen? That is what I’ll be answering in this article. As you read you will be shocked to find out how much you need nitrogen. You will learn all the uses of nitrogen, like why it is needed to keep your food cold.
Nitrogen was discovered by the Scottish physician Daniel Rutherford in 1772. Rutherford began with an empty bottle that he turned upside down in a pan of water, so that the air was trapped. A burning candle was placed inside the bottle with the trapped air, causing the water to rise a bit. Why did this happen? The part of the air that seemed to "disappear" when the candle was burned was oxygen gas, and the part of the air that did not "disappear" Rutherford discovered was nitrogen.
The state of nitrogen is a gas, it is also colorless and the density is .001165g. The melting point is -209.86 Celsius and the boiling point is -195.8 Celsius. The specific heat is 1.040 and the atomic radius is 14.0067. The ionization energy is 1312.0 kJ/mol, electro negativity is 3.04 and the reaction partners are hydrogen gas, metallic lithium IIRC, and so on. Nitrogen is colorless, odorless and tasteless gas.
How do humans use nitrogen? Liquid nitrogen is used as a refrigerant for freezing and transporting food products. Also use for the preservation of bodies and in reproductive cell. Nitrogen can be used for storage of biological samples. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere and is a part of all living tissues. But nitrogen is not all ways good it can cause the oxygen carrying capacity of blood to decrease, decrease functioning of the thyroid gland and cause cancer.
Nitrogen affects me a lot. Without nitrogen my dad wouldn’t have a blow up tired to drive me around. I couldn’t have my food that comes from other countries because they wouldn’t be able to refrigerant the food. The atmosphere wouldn’t have 78% of the gas it needs. So there would be not atmosphere and we all would die.
Nitrogen has seven protons and seven electrons. It has a electon configuration of: 1s2 2s2 2p3, that means it has five electron in the outer shell.
Sources:
http://www.spg-corp.com/News_12.php
http://images-of-elements.com/nitrogen.php
http://www.carondelet.pvt.k12.ca.us/Family/Science/Nitrogen/nitrogen.html/