Potassium

Definition: Potassium

Potassium

Noun

1. A light soft silver-white metallic element of the alkali metal group; oxidizes rapidly in air and reacts violently with water; is abundant in nature in combined forms occurring in sea water and in carnallite and kainite and sylvite.

Date "potassium" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1380. (references)

Etymology: Potassium \Po*tas"si*um\, noun. [New Latin expression. See Potassa, Potash.]. (Websters 1913)

Specialty Definition: Potassium

Domain	Definition
Chemistry	Chemical element:atomic number 19. Source: European Union. (references)
Health	An element that is in the alkali group of metals. It has an atomic symbol K, atomic number 19, and atomic weight 39.10. It is the chief cation in the intracellular fluid of muscle and other cells. Potassium ion is a strong electrolyte and it plays a significant role in the regulation of fluid volume and maintenance of the water-electrolyte balance. (references)
	It is essential to the ability of muscle cells to contract. (references)
Mining	A highly reactive metallic element of the alkali group; it is soft, light, and silvery. Symbol, K. Occurs abundantly in nature; obtained from the following minerals: sylvite, carnallite, langbeinite, and polyhalite. The greatest demand is for use in fertilizers. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Potassium

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Potassium - Calcium
Na K Rb
	Full table

General

Name, Symbol, Number

Potassium, K, 19

Series

Alkali metals

Group, Period, Block

1(IA), 4 , s

Density, Hardness

856 kg/m³, 0.4

Appearance

silvery white

Atomic Properties

Atomic weight

39.0983 amu

Atomic radius (calc.)

220 (243) pm

Covalent radius

196 pm

van der Waals radius

275 pm

Electron configuration

[Ar]4s4s¹

e^- 's per energy level

2, 8, 8, 1

Oxidation states (Oxide)

1 (strong base)

Crystal structure

cubic body centered

Physical Properties

State of matter

solid

Melting point

336.53 K (146.08 °F)

Boiling point

1032 K (1398 °F)

Molar volume

45.94 ×1010^-3 m³/mol

Heat of vaporization

79.87 kJ/mol

Heat of fusion

2.334 kJ/mol

Vapor pressure

1.06×10^-4Pa at __ K

Speed of sound

2000 m/s at 293.15 K

Miscellaneous

Electronegativity

0.82 (Pauling scale)

Specific heat capacity

757 J/(kg*K)

Electrical conductivity

13.9 10⁶/m ohm

Thermal conductivity

102.4 W/(m*K)

1^st ionization potential

418.8 kJ/mol

2^nd ionization potential

3052 kJ/mol

3^rd ionization potential

4420 kJ/mol

4^th ionization potential

4420 kJ/mol

5^th ionization potential

7975 kJ/mol

6^th ionization potential

9590 kJ/mol

7^th ionization potential

11343 kJ/mol

8^th ionization potential

14944 kJ/mol

9^th ionization potential

16963.7 kJ/mol

10^th ionization potential

48610 kJ/mol

'Most Stable Isotopes\'

iso	NA	half-life	DM	DE MeV	DP
³⁹K	93.26%	K is stable with 20 neutrons
⁴⁰K	0.012%	1.277 E⁹y	beta^- epsilon	1.311 1.505	⁴⁰Ca ⁴⁰Ar
⁴¹K	6.73%	K is stable with 22 neutrons

SI units & STP are used except where noted.

Potassium is a chemical element in the periodic table that has the symbol K and atomic number 19. This is a soft, silvery-white metallic alkali metal that occurs naturally bound to other elements in seawater and many minerals. It oxidizes rapidly in air, is very reactive, especially in water, and resembles sodium chemically.

Notable Characteristics

Potassium is the second lightest and the most reactive and most electropositive of the metals. This is a soft solid that easily is cut with a knife and is silvery in color on fresh surfaces. It oxidizes in air rapidly and must be stored in mineral oil for preservation.

Applications

Potassium oxide, best known as potash, is primarily used in fertilizer.
Potassium chloride is used as a substitute for table salt and is also used to stop the heart in executions by lethal injection. It is also used in fertilizer.
Potassium nitrate is used in gunpowder.
Potassium carbonate is used in glass manufacture
This element is an essential component needed in plant growth and is found in most soil types.
In animal cellss potassium is vital to keeping cells alive (see Na-K pump)
NaK an alloy of sodium and potassium is used as a heat-transfer medium.

Many potassium salts are very important, and include, potassium; bromide, carbonate, chlorate, chloride, chromate, cyanide, dichromate, hydroxide, iodide, nitrate, sulfate.

History

Potassium (English, potash L. kalium) was discovered in 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy who derived it from caustic potash (KOH. This alkali metal and was the first metal that was isolated by electrolysis.

Occurrence

This element makes up about 2.4% of the weight of the Earth's crust and is the seventh most abundant element in it. Due to its insolubility, it is very difficult to obtain potassium from its minerals.

However other minerals, such as carnallite, langbeinite, polyhalite, and sylvite are found in ancient lake and sea beds. These minerals form extensive deposits in these envrionments making extracting potassium and its salts more economical. The principle source of pottassium, potash is mined in California, Germany, New Mexico, Utah, and in other places around the world. At 3000 ft below the surface of Saskatchewan lies large deposits of potash which may become important sources of this element and its salts in the future.

The oceans are another source of potassium but the quantify present in a given volume of seawater is relatively low compared to sodium.

Potassium is never found unbound in nature and is produced through electrolysis of its hydroxide in a process that has changed little since Davy. Thermal methods also are employed in potassium production

Isotopes

There are seventeen isotopes of potassium known to exist. The non-synthetic form of potassium are composed of three isotopes: K-39 (93.3%), K-40 (0.01%) and K-41 (6.7%). Naturally occurring K-40 decays to stable Ar-40 (11.2%) by electron capture and by positron emission, and decays to stable Ca-40 (88.8%) by negatron emission; K-40 has a half-life of 1.250 × 10⁹ years.

The decay of K-40 to Ar-40 is commonly used as a method for dating rocks. The conventional K-Ar dating method depends on the assumption that the rocks contained no argon at the time of formation and that all the subsequent radiogenic argon (i.e., Ar-40) was quantitatively retained, i.e., closed system. Minerals are dated by measurement of the concentration of potassium, and the amount of radiogenic Ar-40 that has accumulated. The minerals that are best suited for dating include biotite, muscovite, and plutonic/high grade metamorphic hornblende, and volcanic feldspar; whole rock samples from volcanic flows and shallow instrusives can also be dated if they are unaltered.

Outside of dating, K isotopes have been used extensively in studies of weathering; K isotopes have also be used for nutrient cycling studies because K is a macro-nutrient required for life.

Precautions

Potassium reacts violently with water. This metal should therefore be kept under a mineral oil such as kerosene for this reason.

External Links

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Potassium."

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Synonym: Potassium

Synonym: atomic number 19 (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Potassium

English words defined with "potassium": potassium alum, Potassium carboxide, potassium chloride, Potassium ferricyanide, potassium hydroxide. (references)

Specialty definitions using "potassium": Potassium Channels, Potassium Compounds, potassium deficiency, Potassium Isotopes, Potassium Radioisotopes, potassium tartrate, Potassium, Dietary. (references)

Non-English Usage: "Potassium" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

French (potassium), Manx (potassium).

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Modern Usage: Potassium

Domain

Usage

Screenplays

The toppings contain potassium benzoate. (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge)

The Asgard would never invent a weapon that propels small weights of iron and carbon alloys, by igniting a powder of potassium nitrate, charcoal and sulphur. (Stargate SG-1; writing credit: Robert C. Cooper; Brad Wright)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Potassium

Domain	Title
References	The World Market for Carnallite, Slyvite, and Other Crude Natural Potassium Salts: A 2004 Global Trade Perspective (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	Potassium (Elements) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Potassium

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Photo Album: Potassium

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	Figure 22. Chemical elements that are dissolved in sea water. Major elements are sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium, silicon, carbon, sulfur, oxygen, chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Minor elements are titanium, nitrogen, phosphorus , arsenic, boron, rubidium, cesium, lithium, strontium, barium, zinc, copper, silver, gold, aluminum, lead, manganese, iron, cobalt, and nickel. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now.		It's not a nutty idea-pecans are good for you! They've not only got protein, potassium, phosphorus, and magnesium; but even calcium! Okay, so they contain fat too, but 95 percent of it is unsaturated. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer..
	Sweet, juicy strawberries not only taste good, they're also full of nutrition. Low in calories and carbohydrates, the raw fruit is a good source of fiber potassium, iron, and vitamin C. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Keith Weller..		Tailings from potassium mining operations, Solikamsk, Russia. Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Potassium

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		But milk is high in phosphorus and potassium. (references)
		You may have different restrictions on potassium. (references)
		Diagnosis can be confirmed by a potassium hydroxide smear. (references)
Business		Canadian potassium companies are expected to capture around 65% of the market in a few years. (references)
		China mainly imports urea from Russia, Ukraine and the Middle-East; and potassium fertilizer from Canada and Russia. (references)
		Additionally, the same sources report that there is no production of potassium and phosphorous derivatives in Argentina. (references)
Economic History	Republic of Congo	Natural resources: Petroleum, wood, potassium, potash, lead, zinc, uranium, phosphates, natural gas. (references)
	Belarus	Belarus also has deposits of clay, sand, chalk, dolomite, phosphorite, and rock and potassium salt. (references)
	Costa Rica	The demand in Costa Rica for agricultural chemicals (fertilizers, fungicides, herbicides and pesticides) is traditionally high because the soil generally is low in nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium and magnesium. (references)
Travel	Cote D'ivoire	Uncooked vegetables may be eaten if they have been soaked in a dilute solution of Clorox (one tablespoon in a gallon of water) or potassium permanganate for 15 minutes. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Potassium

"Potassium" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.41% of the time. "Potassium" is used about 341 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	99.41%	339	15,555
Noun (proper)	0.59%	2	245,945
Total	100.00%	341	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: Potassium

Expressions using "potassium": acid potassium tartrate ♦ Amoxicillin and Clavulanate Potassium ♦ Antimony Potassium Tartrate ♦ Canrenoate Potassium ♦ cyanide of potassium ♦ Diclofenac Potassium ♦ neutral potassium tartrate ♦ Penicillin V Potassium ♦ Potassium Acetate ♦ potassium alum ♦ potassium aluminate ♦ Potassium Bicarbonate ♦ potassium bitartrate ♦ potassium bromide ♦ potassium carbonate ♦ potassium carboxide ♦ Potassium Channels ♦ potassium chlorate ♦ potassium chloride ♦ Potassium Citrate ♦ Potassium Compounds ♦ potassium cyanide ♦ potassium deficiency ♦ potassium dichromate ♦ potassium ethyl xanthate ♦ potassium ethylditiocarbonate ♦ potassium ethylxanthogenate ♦ potassium ferricyanide ♦ potassium ferrocyanide ♦ potassium hydrogen tartrate ♦ potassium hydroxide ♦ potassium iodide ♦ potassium ion ♦ Potassium Isotopes ♦ Potassium Magnesium Aspartate ♦ potassium nitrate ♦ potassium permanganate ♦ Potassium Radioisotopes ♦ potassium tartrate ♦ potassium xanthate ♦ potassium xanthogenate. Additional references.
Hyphenated Usage
	Beginning with "potassium": potassium-adsorption, potassium-argon, potassium-channel, potassium-doped, potassium-promoted, potassium-rich, Potassium-Sparing.
	Ending with "potassium": hydrogen-potassium.
	Containing "potassium": Amoxicillin-Potassium Clavulanate Combination.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Potassium

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day	Expression	Frequency per Day
potassium	2,258	acesulfame potassium	54
food with potassium	224	potassium in food	45
low potassium	202	potassium chlorate	44
potassium chloride	172	potassium perchlorate	42
potassium nitrate	164	low potassium level	40
potassium deficiency	163	potassium gluconate	40
high potassium	159	potassium carbonate	39
potassium rich food	148	food containing potassium	38
food high in potassium	138	potassium citrate	37
potassium permanganate	132	food rich in potassium	36
potassium iodide	120	effects low potassium	32
source of potassium	95	potassium cyanide	31
high potassium food	93	food potassium preservative	31
potassium level	88	potassium pump sodium	29
low potassium diet	86	potassium food source	29
potassium hydroxide	73	banana potassium	29
potassium supplement	73	potassium deficiency symptom	28
high potassium level	71	low potassium food	28
low potassium symptom	66	much potassium too	27
potassium sorbate	55	potassium sulfate	27
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Potassium

Language		Translations for "potassium"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		kalium. (various references)

Arabic		‏بوتاسيوم. (various references)

Bulgarian		калий. (various references)

Chinese		�'� (Ka). (various references)

Czech		draslík. (various references)

Danish		kalium. (various references)

Dutch		kalium. (various references)

Esperanto		kalio. (various references)

Farsi		پتاسیم(ش.). (various references)

Finnish		kalium (potash, potassium oxide). (various references)

French		potassium. (various references)

German		Kalium. (various references)

Greek		κάλιο (potash). (various references)

Hungarian		kálium (potassa). (various references)

Indonesian		kalium. (various references)

Irish		potaisiam. (various references)

Italian		potassio. (various references)

Japanese Kanji		� 里 (potash), カラー写真 (ballads sung by Karashima Midori, calif, California, California roll, calligraphy, carat, caricature, caricaturize, caries, cauliflower, charisma, charismatic, color photo, colorful, column, curriculum, Kaliglas, Karachi, karaoke, karat, potash glass, water outlet). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		かり (acting, assumed, borrowing, clip, cut, debt, fleeting, hunting, informal, interim, loan, lower official, potash, provisional, prune, reap, shear, temporary, trim, unauthorized, wild goose), カリウ� . (various references)

Korean		칼륨. (various references)

Manx		potassium. (various references)

Pig Latin		otassiumpay

Portuguese		potássio. (various references)

Romanian		potasiu. (various references)

Russian		калий. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		kalijum. (various references)

Spanish		potasio. (various references)

Swedish		kalium (potass), kali (potass, pottasic). (various references)

Thai		�"ินประสิว (niter, nitrate of potassium, nitre). (various references)

Turkish		potasyum (kalium). (various references)

Ukrainian		калій. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Potassium

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	kalium. (various references)
Modern Latin	1500-Modern	potassa. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Potassium

Derivations
	Words beginning with "potassium": potassiums. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Potassium" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Potacki, potasium, Potasse, potassiam, potssum, pottassium, Pottisham, Protasia, Protasius. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Potassium"

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "potassium" (pronounced puta"sēum)
4	-s ē u m	axiom, calcium, lawrencium, paramecium.
3	-ē u m	alluvium, ammonium, aquarium, atrium, auditorium, bacterium, barium, beryllium, cadmium, cesium, chromium, colloquium, compendium, condominium, consortium, crematorium, delirium, deuterium, disequilibrium, emporium, equilibrium, europium, fermium, gallium, geranium, gonium, gymnasium, hafnium, harmonium, helium, Herbarium, holmium, honorarium, idiom, indium, iridium, linoleum, lithium, magnesium, medium, millennium, minium, moratorium, myocardium, nephridium, neptunium, niobium, nobelium, opium, opprobrium, osmium, palladium, pandemonium, petroleum, planetarium, Plasmodium, plutonium, podium, polonium, premium, presidium, promethium, protium, psyllium, radium, requiem, rhodium, selenium, sodium, stadium, strontium, superpremium, symposium, tedium, tellurium, thallium, thorium, titanium, tritium, uranium, vanadium, yttrium, zirconium.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Potassium

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-i-m-o-p-s-s-t-u"
	-1 letter: impastos, utopisms.
	-2 letters: autisms, impasto, imposts, missout, misstop, outpass, utopias, utopism.
	-3 letters: autism, impost, maists, miaous, opiums, optima, ostium, passim, pastis, patios, patois, posits, possum, ptosis, situps, spaits, spouts, stamps, stomas, stomps, stoups, stumps, stupas, tossup, upmost, uptoss, utopia.
	-4 letters: amiss, apsis, aspis, atoms, autos, iotas, maist, masts, mauts, miaou, misos, mists, moats, moist.
	Words containing the letters "a-i-m-o-p-s-s-t-u"
	+1 letter: assumption, potassiums.
	+2 letters: assumptions, utopianisms.
	+3 letters: reassumption.
	+4 letters: automorphisms, misassumption, reassumptions, slumpflations.
	+5 letters: conceptualisms, hippopotamuses, misassumptions, pococurantisms, subatmospheric, superambitious, superdiplomats.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.