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Carbon Carbon, an element discovered before history itself, is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. It can be found everywhere including in the sun, the stars, comets, and the atmospheres of most planets. There are close to ten million known carbon compounds, many thousands of which are vital to the basis of life itself. The name carbon comes from the Latin word carbo meaning charcoal. Carbon, the sixth most abundant element in the universe, has been known since ancient times. It is unknown as to where or how carbon was discovered. The element carbon is a non-metal located in group-14 of the periodic table. It’s symbol is C, atomic number is 6, and atomic mass is 12.01115. Carbon has both physical and chemical properties that make up the element itself. Carbon occurs in many forms in nature. An example is when it is graphite it is black, but when it is in diamond form it becomes colorless. Carbon’s melting point in Kelvin is 3800K and boiling point is 4300K. A chemical property would be when carbon reacts with oxygen; for example when you burn charcoal with fire(Fire contains oxygen and charcoal is made of carbon). There are seven known unstable isotopes of carbon(9C, 10C, 11C, 14C, 15C, 16C, 17C), and two stable isotopes of carbon(12C and 13C). The electronic configuration for carbon is as follows: 1s² 2s² 2p². Carbon the element has many uses in everyday life as well as uses universally. Three naturally occurring allotropes of carbon are known to exist: amorphous, graphite and diamond. Amorphous carbon is formed when a material containing carbon is burned without enough oxygen for it to burn completely.
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