Fun Science Facts About Carbon

Science is a study of living things and the constituents, processes in life around us. We know that a large number of living and non-living things in our environment are made of a common building block otherwise known as carbon.

Carbon has been known since ancient times in the form of soot, charcoal, graphite, and diamonds. During the ancient time, people, of course, did not realize that these substances were different forms of the same element. Carbon was named by the renowned French Scientist Antoine Lavoisier and he carried out a variety of experiments to know about its nature.

Carbon is an essential and important part of a number of living things around us. The atmosphere itself is constituted of about 0.03 % of carbon. Let us consider the science about carbon, its composition. Here are some interesting facts about carbon for science students.

Carbon is a non-metal and its atomic number is six, its symbol is C. It can bond with itself and numerous other elements forming over 9 million compounds.

Carbon is seen to be present in all living organisms and in science it is a very basic element in organic chemistry.

Carbon in its elemental form is present in nature as diamond, in its hardest form and as graphite which is the softest form. Diamond is an excellent abrasive and it also has the highest thermal conductivity.
There are numerous applications of science involving carbon. It is used as a gemstone (diamond) and for cutting and drilling. In the form of graphite, it is used in pencils. Carbon is used to make explosives using principles of chemical science.

About 20% of the weight of living organisms is carbon.

Almost all known compounds contain carbon.

The carbon atoms present in our body were all once part of the carbon dioxide fraction of the atmosphere.

Graphene, which is a compound of carbon, is the thinnest, strongest material ever known.

Car tires are black because they are about 30% carbon black, which is added to the rubber to strengthen it. Carbon black also helps protect against UV damage to the tires.

During the burning of helium in nuclear fusion reactions, carbon is made within stars.

There are numerous applications of science involving carbon. It is used as a gemstone (diamond) and for cutting and drilling. In the form of graphite it is used in pencils. Carbon is used to make explosives using principles of chemical science.

Students feel encouraged and motivated when students are taught using fun facts about the subject. At Miracle Learning Centre in our secondary science tuition, primary science tuition, ip science tuition offered for the students of Singapore, we always look towards making our courses innovative so that the students feel encouraged and motivated to learn with enthusiasm.