Atomic number: 7
Symbol: N
Category: non metal
Density at 25°C: gas
Adding an extra proton to carbon turns it into nitrogen. Well that's odd isn't it? because nitrogen is a gas. (that is a really interesting question actually and will investigate this further). Anyway back to nitrogen. This is again a very familiar element being 78.08% of what the Earth’s atmosphere contains. Nitrogen is also commonly cooled to a liquid state and used in a variety of different applications from cooking to industrial cooling/storage.
Nitrogen gas in an electric discharge tube. image: wikipedia
Use, natural applications or common combinations:
Basic characteristics:
- Standard atomic weight: [14.006 43, 14.007 28] why this variation?
- Melting point: -210.00 °C (below this temperature nitrogen is solid)
- Boiling point: -195.79 °C (aka liquid nitrogen)
- Radioactivity: essentially all stable
- selected isoptopes: 13N is radioactive with a half life of 9.965 min turning into 13C