Carbon

Without the element of carbon, life as we know it would not exist. Carbon provides the framework for all tissues of plants and animals. They are built of elements grouped around chains or rings made of carbon atoms. Carbon also provides common fuels--coal, oil, gasoline, and natural gas. Sugar, starch, and paper are compounds of carbon with hydrogen and oxygen. Proteins such as hair, meat, and silk contain these and other elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. More than six and a half million compounds of the element carbon, many times more then those of any other element, are known, and more are discovered and synthesized each week. Hundreds of carbon compounds are commercially important but the element itself in the forms of diamond, graphite, charcoal, and carbon black is also used in a variety of manufactured products. Besides the wide occurrence of carbon in compounds, two forms of the element--diamond and graphite, are deposited in widely scattered locations around the Earth. PROPERTIES OF CARBON Symbol = C Atomic Number = 6 Atomic Weight = 12.011 Density at 68 Degrees F = 1.88-3.53 Boiling Point = 8,721 degrees F Melting Point = 6,420 degrees F