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Magnesium Mg
Where is magnesium used--or where does it impact your everyday life?
Magnesium burns with a very bright flame and can be used in some flares. Here a strip of magnesium ribbon is being burned--with the safety requirement that no-one looks directly at the flame.
Used in alloys--often with aluminium--for example the alloy magnalium used for aircraft fuselage
Magnesium Atomic # 12
Symbol: Mg
Light-grey, metallic solid at room temperature
Melting point: 650°C (1202°F)
Boiling point: 1090°C (1994°F)
Density (at room temperature): 1.74 g/mL
Hazard: a dangerous, reactive metal--easily ignited
Reactions with air: with oxygen: Burns with a white flame. 2Mg + O2 --> 2MgO
With nitrogen: 3Mg + N2 --> Mg3N2
Solubility in water (or reaction): Reacts --> Mg(OH)2 (aq).
Electron configuration: 2, 8, 2 or 1s2, 2s2 2p6, 3s2.
Main uses of magnesiumt: Ideal for pyrotechnics and fireworks because it produces a bright, white light when burned. Chocolates and many leafy foods contain magnesium, good for our bones. It is lightweight and strong and it is used in trucks and automobiles, it makes car wheels stronger.
Alloyed with aluminum for aircraft fuselages.
Discovered: 1755 in England by Joseph Black, a Scottish chemist who also discovered latent heat and carbon dioxide.
The element is too reactive to be found uncombined in nature.
Magnesium ribbon is used in WIS Chemistry experiments including a Chemistry One experiment investigating conductivity, malleability, reactivity, etc. of several different metals: the Metal, Metalloid, Non-metal Lab.
The wheels in Head of School. Mr L's, car are magnesium alloy. This usually involves ~10 % aluminum and ~0.25 % manganese and perhaps other elements such as zinc
WIS Photographer
History Teacher (2015), Mr. R - now teaching in Munich - visiting Italy and pointing to the Dolomites. Not surprisingly, they are made of the mineral dolomite which is a magnesium ore, CaMg(CO3)2. It's similar to limestone CaCO3.
To the left, the magnesium ore inderite MgB3O3(OH)5.5H2O from Boron, California, USA on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. viewed during a Chemistry One field trip.
WIS Photographer
To the right, another sample of a magnesium/boron ore, kurkonovite, MgB3O3(OH)5.5H2O from the Boron open pit mine in Boron, California, USA on display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. viewed during a Chemistry One field trip.
WIS Photographer
To the left, brucite, Mg(OH)2, found at the Ethel mine, Mtoroshanga, Zimbabwe viewed at the National Museum of Natural Histoy in Washington DC during a Chemistry One field trip
WIS Photographer
Testing magnesium for electrical conductivty in the Chemistry One Metal, Non-metal, Metalloid lab
See the video of testing magnesium and silicon for electrical conductivity
Pre-treated roads in winter can have a liquid layer of deicer applied depending on the road temperature and the type of pecipitation expected. Magnesium chloride and calcium chloride treatments are more effective than sodium chloride (more ions per mole! NaCl versus MgCl2 and CaCl2. The temperature should be above -7 dec C (20 deg F) for it to be effective.
This pet-friendlier ice melt contains magnesium chloride hexahydrate, MgCl2.6H2O, calcium chloride, CaCl2, 2%, potassium chloride, KCl, 1%, and sodium chloride, NaCl, 1%
A small part of a block of magnesium can be shaved into small pieces. Tinder is added-dried grass or dry dead leaves and a spark produced with a flint or piece of metal. The magnesium ignites easily.
WIS Photographer
Junior IB Chemistry student Daphne W-D with magnesium ribbon before converting it to magnesium oxide in the Empirical Formula Lab
WIS Photographer
Discover the beauty of the chemistry behind Milk of Magnesia in videos showing acid-base studies in a Chemistry 2 class. Universal indicator goes through a myriad of color changes when hydrochloric acid is added to a diluted solution of Milk of Magnesia [magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2] with 4 mL universal indicator added.
Photographer Julia F.
