![]() ![]() ![]() Sounds fun: According to Humphry Davy's lab assistant, the scientist reacted with glee when he discovered his new element.A 2008 study published in the journal Hypertension found that certain blood pressure drugs can result in low potassium levels, which in turn raises the risk of Type 2 diabetes. Your potassium levels may be off without these extreme symptoms, however.High potassium, called hyperkalemia, causes similar symptoms. Symptoms include muscle cramps, weakness and irregular heartbeat, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Low potassium in the body is called hypokalemia.(Image credit: Greg Robson/Creative Commons, Andrei Marincas Shutterstock) Who knew? In large enough quantities, the drug stops the heart by disrupting the electrical signals that force the muscle to contract and relax, according to a 2012 case report in the journal Case Reports in Emergency Medicine. The drug potassium chloride is commonly used to treat potassium deficiency, but the dose makes the poison: Potassium chloride has also been used in lethal injections. Potassium is also a necessary nutrient for life as an electrolyte, it conducts electric signals in the body along with sodium, it's crucial for proper muscle contraction. In the modern day, potash is mined, with 35 million metric tons pulled from the Earth each year, according to the RSC. Plants are rich in potassium, so people would collect wood ash and leech out the potassium salts for use in fertilizer. The word "potash" comes from "pot ash," harkening back to the original method of production of these salts. Potash, a generic term for any salt containing water-soluble potassium, is a major ingredient in fertilizers. Potassium alum (KAI(SO 4) 2) might show up in your deodorant (it inhibits bacterial growth) or in textile and leather production. Saltpeter (potassium nitrate) was used to preserve food in the Middle Ages and is part of gunpowder, which was invented in ninth-century China. It's not surprising that humans have made use of this resource. Most common isotopes: K-39 (93.3 percent natural abundance), K-40 (0.0117 percent natural abundance), K-41 (6.73 percent natural abundance)Ībout 2.4 percent of the mass of Earth's crust is potassium, including billions of tons of potassium chloride, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.Number of isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 29 3 naturally occuring.Boiling point: 1,398 degrees Fahrenheit (1,032 degrees Celsius).Melting point: 146.08 degrees Fahrenheit (63.38 degrees Celsius).Density: 0.89 grams per cubic centimeter.Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 39.0983. ![]() Atomic symbol (on the Periodic Table of Elements): K (from the Latin word for alkali, kalium.).Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 19. ![]()
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