Talk:Potassium

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Contents 1 changeover to WP Elements 2 Information Sources 3 Decomposes 4 Self-combustion 5 Punctuation 6 etymology of the name 7 Potassium in Diet 8 Detonate on Opening? 9 Stupid Name 10 Production of Metal 11 Potassium burning in air or oxygen

[edit] changeover to WP Elements

Article changed over to Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by User:maveric149. Elementbox converted 11:57, 1 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 23:29, 26 June 2005).

[edit] Information Sources

Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Potassium. Additional text was taken directly from USGS Periodic Table - Potassium. Other information was obtained from the sources listed on the main page but was reformatted and converted into SI units.

[edit] Decomposes

Similar to other alkali metals potassium decomposes in water…'

This is hard to grok—exactly what does it mean for an element to decompose?
—Herbee 23:44, 2004 Apr 1 (UTC)

Water decomposes violently when an alkali metal is in it.

[edit] Self-combustion

Yaelle Chovav Rosner said: ...regarding ‘self combustion' - it happened to people! It was reported on TV /a documentary 'Unsolved mysteries'...

I think/assume these people might have had too high levels of ALKALI METAL in their body. That substance reacted violently with the body cell/water to produce HYDROGEN then spontaneously caught fire (as it suppose to do around water/blood). Another hint that helped me 'solve' the mysterry: the salts emitted the purple color found on the bodies after the fire died.

Can anyone explain the cause of 'self combustion'?(remember, these people were heavy smokers)

—ya-elle 23:44, 2005 Apr 1 (SD)

ya, they either fell asleep or died; there was a fire in a closed room which caused the combustion process to stop. Sorry, no aliens were involved. Scot.parker 13:43, 22 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Punctuation

Hyphens used as dashes have been turned into proper dashes. — Chameleon 16:12, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

First, American spelling is the standard on element articles. Second, by changing this article, you make it inconsistent with the other element articles.

Darrien 16:30, 2004 May 23 (UTC)

You want spelling consistent across series of articles, now, eh? Next you'll be extending this series to the whole of Wikipedia. The world and the Internet is Coca-Colonized enough as it is without your little crusade for Webster spellings. In any case, the Americanism I corrected en passant is not the issue. The issue is that there are all sorts of punctuation around Wikipedia, and I correct all pages I come across. You should too. If the other element pages are different, we need to change them too, but I haven't got time to do them all today.

The fact there is no dash key on common keyboards is no excuse for sloppy punctuation. Chameleon 16:56, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

Are you trying to wind me up or something? You are a vandal undoing useful proofreading work. Chameleon 17:06, 23 May 2004 (UTC)

[edit] etymology of the name

Why is it called potassium in English when the Latin name is so different? --Joy [shallot] 01:33, 28 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Thanks to the anonymous user who filled in the blank there. --Joy [shallot]

Where exactly did Kalium come from, anyway? It's not a native Latin word (Classical Latin uses no k letter). It must have been either borrowed from Greek or named so in much later times. - 81.15.146.91 14:03, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

I believe kalium comes from the Arabic al'Qali (also the origin of alkali). The Arabic word refers to the ashes of certain plants that were mostly potassium carbonate.

Agreed, it derives from an Arabic word, but there is actually one natively Latin word with k. It would also be interesting who dropped this mere incorrect statement here. 80.129.168.51 23:34, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

You cook your vittles in a 'pot' over an open fire. There is wood 'ash'. Hence the word(s) pot-ash from where potassium was first isolated. It is very common to have an English name and a Latin name when naming things in science (like flowers). In this case the English-derived word became the common-usage term but the Latin symbol, 'K' was retained. Kalium the is mediaval Latin word for pot-ash which may have come from Arabic as described above (qali -> kalium).

[edit] Potassium in Diet

There was a recent change to the page indicating that bananas are actually low in Potassium. I can find no evidence to this, and much evidence to the contrary, including pages that claim to indicate the measured quantities of potassium in bananas. Should this be reverted? http://www.weightlossforall.com/potassium-rich-food.htm http://nhnh.essortment.com/potassiumfoodh_rkyn.htm http://www.healthyeatingclub.com/info/books-phds/books/foodfacts/html/data/data5b.html http://www.healthtouch.com/bin/EContent_HT/cnoteShowLfts.asp?fname=02023&title=POTASSIUM+CONTENT+OF+FOODS+LIST+&cid=HTHLTH

Are there any risks in ingesting too much potassium? If so, how serious, and what levels constitute an unhealthy amount? Maybe answers could be useful to this part of the article. Peoplesunionpro 13:26, July 25, 2005 (UTC)

Ingesting potassium salts should be only somewhat more dangerous than eating sodium salts. For example, the LD₅₀ for potassium chloride is measured in grams per kilogram body mass by this route, though it seems at least one person has been killed by ingesting just 20 mg/kg. [1] Potassium chloride is much more dangerous when injected (given intravenously, the LD₅₀ is an order of magnitude lower), which makes it effective for lethal injection. There are, on the other hand, some circumstances by which dietary potassium could accumulate in the body (causing hyperkalemia), such as if one takes potassium-sparing diuretics.

I'm pretty sure one could technically chew and swallow pure potassium metal, but that would cause serious burns and hurt terribly. ‣ᓛᖁᑐ 18:00, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

Potassium is important for regulating the heartbeat (it may 'cure' heart palpatations, for example). Too much sodium will give you high blood pressure but too much potassium will stop your heart, the intravaneous lethal dose being less than the oral dose.

[edit] Detonate on Opening?

What is this sillyness about "shock-sensitive peroxides"? Can i get a source on that, or is it vandalism?

Silly me, forgot to sign my post -qnaal 04:57, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

Oh yeah, it's in the "Precautions" section, at the bottom. -qnaal 04:59, 7 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Stupid Name

dont you think that potasium as name for a element with then signature Na is kinda stupid? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 213.100.13.232 (talk • contribs).

Yeah, especially since potassium's symbol is "K" rather than "Na". Perhaps you meant to post this on Talk:Sodium? Not that I would recommend it. Bryan 21:29, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Production of Metal

The article states that "thermal methods" are used to prepare potassium. Is this referring to the reduction of molten potassium chloride with sodium vapor? If so, it should be more specific.

[edit] Potassium burning in air or oxygen

When potassium burns in air the oxide and peroxide are formed. In pure oxygen the superoxide is formed.

Scot.parker 22:14, 21 September 2006 (UTC)