Talk:Calcium

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Deavman 14:57, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

Calcium is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.
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Article changed over to Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by User:maveric149. Elementbox converted 12:11, 1 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 22:31, 25 June 2005).

Contents

[edit] Information Sources

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

[edit] Talk

Does anyone know if calcium could be a possible alternative fuel source? I understand that in water, calcium produces hydrogen??. If anyone cares to respond feel free to leave a message on my talk page if the topic isn't appropriate for here. Wjbentley 10:17, 8 November 2005 (UTC)

Not really. Calcium isn't found in a native state and the energy needed to extract calcium from a calcium compound is much more than the energy available in the hydrogen released when calcium reacts with water. The only reason coal and petroleum are practical fuel sources is that plants can efficiently produce their precursors using photosynthesis. --PeterJeremy 22:57, 23 April 2006 (UTC)

maybe but i would like to know how it is used in the cell

this article should be expanded with the physiological and biological roles of calcium.

[edit] Precautions

I think someone ought to do a bit oln avoiding touching it with damp hands, not nice!

The history of calcium should be added. I am not familiar enough with the Wikipedia to do it myself without possibly screwing something up :(.

Be BOLD man! Feel free to add it here if you're still too scared to add it yourself, someone will transfer it to the main article. Don't worry about screwing it up though, someone can always revert your edit if you make a mess of it! -81.99.181.231 18:54, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Silvery White

I'm no chemist, but if I was, would those brown pellets appear to be "silvery white"? Why does this page describe brown pellets as silvery white? Is this a mistake? -asx- 01:34, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

It refers to a clean, freshly cut surface of the pure metal, which quickly tarnishes and is hard to keep like that, however. http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Elements/020/index.s7.html shows a picture from the Everest sample set which is very similar to that in the article. Femto 18:01, 6 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] calcium

who ever said 11 year olds couldn't do 9th grade research?! im looking for the history behind calcium. the symbol is CA. the atomic number is 20 the atomic mass is 40.08 the melting point is 1112c the boiling point is 1757c the cost is $11 per 100g it is a metal in the alkali family it was discovered in 1808 by Humphry Davy it is a solid when it is burned it flames in brihgt colours but i dont know the origin of the name or the # of protons nuetrons and electrons or the normal phase . where can i find them????

This sounds more like your homework! Here's a couple of hints:
  • 'Normal phase' means state at room temperature, as in 'solid', 'liquid' or 'gas'.
  • Number of protons = the number of electrons = the atomic number.
  • The number of neutrons = atomic mass - atomic number.
Feel free to post back if you want me to check your answers for the above! -81.99.181.231 18:53, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

I have a project i am doing for school and i need 2 know alot of things... i havn't finished searching for everything i need but soo far i have found all my answers. I was just wondering if you could relate calciums properties of other elements in its group/family and what are some of the similarities and differences? thanks!

[edit] upcoming edit

Just to tell everyone here, this edit IS going to be a stab at the milk industry and the United States Department of Agriculture, who designed the food pyramid.

I'm not going to mention these two things, but I am going to emphasize the large number of alternative calcium sources, as a passive agressive attack on our acceptance of thinking what the dairy industry and the government tells us.

The edit is not going to be biased, but my intent is.

ok. ^_^ Blueaster 03:50, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

hi i just wanted to thank u guys here for adding my stuff to the calcium article...still think u should add chemical properties, though. but! u guys rock!

The question is do they rock the rock? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.116.116 (talk) 09:38, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

eLiZaH WuS ErE 17/04/2008 7:40pm!!!!!!!!!! LMFAO —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.220.116.116 (talk) 09:41, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] DYING!!!

Ok, well, I've been dying to pelt my own two-cents at this website. It doesn't have enough info!!! (But it's still the best) Anyway, below the "MAN" person says if I find, it will be added (maybe)... so... it better be!!!!

1)Place discovered: This element was discovered in England, or first seperated anyway. The Romans apparently prepared it as lime. (which they called calyx) lime => calyx (whatevr language the romans spoke. was it latin?) => calx (latin => calcium.. tada!!!

2)Location of most abundance: I don't know. I'm hoping someone will find out. Intrestingly, it's the 5th most abundant sunstance in the Earth's Crust, and 4th most abundant in the lunar whatevr. I think outerspace.

3)CHEMICAL PROPERTIES: I don't feel like listing them, so go to <http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/periodic/Ca.html#Chemical> and that site will have all the gory details like what it's ionization potential and electromagnetic equivalent is. fascinating stuff. PLEASE ADD THESE. i'm trying to help ur site and users, so ADD THEM!!!

4) COST PER GRAMS: it's around $ .10 according to some bodybuilding site. i'm hoping you'll find a more reliable source. and wondering who really takes pure calcium for their body... ew...

Well, I'm sure had more to add, but I can't think of it. In the meantime, put this in the article!!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.101.39.118 (talk • contribs) .



i think that this needs to have more info on the ELEMENT itself! thanxs!

signed the frustrated freshmn

[edit] Calcium absorption

I think this article needs a section on absorption of calcium supplements. For example: that sodium intake decreases calcium absorption. I get some sources and hopefully add my edits but if anyone else wants to step in please do.

I agree this artlicle does not do as good as a job as I would like about supplemental calcium facts. I also have seen numbers such as men between the ages of 13-24 should take between 1200-1500mg a day of calcium. I would also like to know the difference between calcium citrate and calcium citrate malate. Also, how does vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, copper, and boron help absorption? I also want to state that people buying supplements should check to see if they conform to USP<2091> for weight and USP<2040> for disintegration. Independent potency verification is always a good thing as well. Killer Swath 07:30, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fat reduced dairy a bad idea

Please. Butter fat is essential for optimal mineral absorption from milk, because of it's vitamin A and D content. Don't forget the fact, that rickets is prevented not primarily by calcium supplementation, but by supplementation with cod liver oil or plain butter, which are both abundant sources of A and D.

There are tons of books documenting various people living on traditional diets high in saturated fats (like butter fat) and displaying extraordinarily robust health, with perfect teeth and bone structure. Do some research, for God's sake.

If saturated fats, cholesterol and such (contrary to popular(ized) belief) vital substances, do somehow clog arteries, then a high percentage of mammals are at serious health risk when growing up exclusively on their mother's milk, that's obviously not fat reduced. We have some conflicting ideas here, because milk is considered, on the other hand, as the perfect food for babies, without which normal physical development and health of the baby is at risk.

Correlation of increased cholesterol (mainly found in saturated fat, such as butter) with increased incidence of vascular diseases can not possibly be interpreted as a cause-consequence relationship. There are numerous other nutritional, life-style and environmental factors, beside saturated fat intake, that influence cholesterol levels. And there are numerous studies that fail to show a clear connection between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol. And there are studies, connecting higher cholesterol to prolonged life span, and low cholesterol to shortened life span. And there is the pharmaceutical industry making billions, because they have studies showing how the pills they're selling lower cholesterol. Unfortunately, there are also studies showing that those medications indeed lower cholesterol, but also increase the risk of dying. And ... there are studies, showing that saturated fats have the most pronounced triglyceride lowering effect among all the fats. What I personally care about are documented traditional diets, that were able to keep the people perfectly disease free - and almost without exception, all such diets were based on foods high in saturated fats (milk, butter, cheese, lard, eggs, meat with fat, ... coconuts).

And. Lastly, saturated fat intake in USA was nearly constant in the last 100 years, while the intake of vegetable oils and margarine, together with refined sugars and grains, has exploded. Correlating along that line, the country suffered obesity epidemic, with cancer and heart disease being number one killers. Talking about countries, England eradicated rickets by essentially ordering its people to eat high staurated-fat foods like eggs and butter and I personally know about some old lady (that lived in times where rickets was common) still putting lard in a stew "for strong bones". Lard is abundant with vitamin D, so she's basically right.

Speaking about vitamin D, it just came to my mind, that vitamin D deficient people are more likely to be affected by cardio-vascular diseases and cancer than people whose diets or sun exposure provides ample amounts.

Bottom line is, if we are talking about milk as a calcium source, you definitely need all the butter fat there is in milk for your body to actually be able to utilize the calcium.

But if you're consuming lots of dairy products, you will probably get an adequate amount of dairy fat from low-fat choices. If you're consuming lots of dairy products and they are high-fat choices, you will probably acquire a fat arse.
Is it necessary to consume any dairy products at all? Many Asians traditionally do not, and yet they are fine. My boyfriend has recently got the results back from a comprehensive blood test. He is a vegetarian, and has an allergy to dairy products. He takes no supplements and yet he was normal for all nutrients. For example, he had 2.36 mmol/l of calcium, with the reference range for healthy people given as 2.15–2.65. Silversmith Hewwo 05:59, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Something should be included on the ice cream diet. --70.111.218.254 23:45, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sources?

I think it might be helpful to list sources for claims about dietary sources of calcium because the two sections about it seem to claim two different things with regard to dairy products. Outside of this page, I haven't ever heard anyone claim that dairy isn't a good source of calcium, I don't think, but it's a long time since I took either a biology class or a health class. On a more general note, the section "dietary sources of calcium" could probably be combined with "nutrition".AwesomeTruffle 20:33, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

If you read a few comments above, there is a user that seemed to have added some NPOV information into that area. However, I cannot verify that as of this point. 154.20.61.157 07:21, 2 December 2006 (UTC)

A) Nobody ever said that one has to drink milk or consume dairy products to get sufficient dietary calcium - they are merely a GOOD SOURCE of calcium.

B) I deleted the parts that said the milk reduces calcium because you need it to digest the protein in milk (casein). There was no citation for this. And I don't know in detail how your body goes about digesting casein and if it indeed does require the use of calcium, but I do know that MILK AND DAIRY PRODUCTS DO NOT REMOVE CALCIUM FROM THE BODY. If this were true a lot of soceties that we know today never would have existed - a lot of societies have and some still do LIVE ON DAIRY PRODUCTS. The Masai and other East African cultures wouldn't exist, modern English and other Northern European cultures wouldn't exist, a lot of the Indian cultures wouldn't exist because they all WOULD HAVE DIED FROM CALCIUM LOSS. So can we please stop claiming that dairy products REMOVE calcium from the body? -EDWIN—Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.83.21.28 (talk)

OK, somebody reversed the changes that I had made that I discuss in B) above and put in the part that makes it sound like dairy products REMOVE calcium from your body. I said it before and I'll say it again, DAIRY PRODUCTS DO NOT REMOVE CALCIUM FROM THE BODY. That's impossible, read my comments above to see why. If you think I am wrong please post why here in the discussion board, instead of just passive-aggressively changing the article back with absolutely no explanation. -EDWIN—Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.83.21.28 (talk)

   The masai... bad example ?

Well interestingly only the Masai seem to suffer from osteoporosis while their neighbours across tanzania and other african countries and who do not consume large qties of milk usually have healthy bones. Also the Masai life expectancy is only around 46 or so.... not enough to show cardiovascular disease. It would really be interesting to have post-mortem data from these populations.-- Deavman 14:57, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

COMMENT Nonsense. That baloney comes from Cohen's rabid www.notmilk.com site, and is supported by NO evidence. Nor is it true. Also, heart disease is studied in an age adjusted way, so Cohen's other idea that Maasai (also spelled Masai) don't live long enough to get it, is really dumb. Life expectancy of 46 merely means a lot of infants die. It's an average. It doesn't mean no old people. Sheesh! SBHarris 21:56, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Stellar absorption lines

It would be helpful if this article discussed the topic of Calcium absorption lines from a stellar astronomy perspective. In particular, with regard to the H and K lines that are commonly used to measure chromospheric activity.[1] Thank you! — RJH (talk) 17:16, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Done. — RJH (talk) 15:49, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Maximum allowances for calcium supplements: mg of what?

From the first paragraph about calcium supplements:

Calcium supplements are used... ...most experts agree that no more than 500 mg should be taken at a time... Recommended daily calcium intake varies from 1000 to 1500 mg...

Because the subject of the paragraph is supplements, it's not very clear what that quote means: experts recommend mgs of what substance? Is it elemental calcium, or a supplemental form? That is, Calcium carbonate (40% elemental calcium), Calcium citrate (21% elemental calcium), Calcium phosphate (??% elemental calcium), etc.

If the writer meant to say that 1000-1500mg of elemental calcium is recommended, it can be written like so:

"Calcium supplements are used... ...most experts agree that no more than 500 mg of elemental calcium should be taken at a time... Recommended daily elemental calcium intake varies from 1000 to 1500 mg..."

--AC 05:34, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Melting point

Calcium's melting point is 1112 K not 1115 K —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.238.90.56 (talk) 21:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

I already have one source that agrees. If I can find several others, I will change it later this evening. Karl Hahn (T) (C) 21:51, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
Merck, 9th ed. gives mp as 850°C (1123K), CRC 44th ed. gives mp as 842°C (1115K). A software package I have on my computer gives it as 1112K. So there is enough diversity among authoritative sources to leave the mp in the article as it is. Apparently measuring this mp to 4 digit accuracy is not a trivial exercise. Karl Hahn (T) (C) 01:53, 24 October 2007 (UTC)
See Melting points of the elements (data page) for a table with three references for each element. In this case, all three sources agreed on the value currently used: CRC, Lange, and Webelements (although the latter might be taken from one of the other two...). --Itub 11:33, 25 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Electronic structure notable?

We have a lot more interesting notable facts about calcium than a whole paragraph giving its electronic structure in lengthy English description. How about we put it in as [Ar]4s2 (see the table) or even with the [Ar] completely written out in compact notation, and put some interesting stuff in this space. SBHarris 21:06, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

Sure, be bold and add more interesting information! --Itub (talk) 12:00, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Coral Calcium Merge

Resolved.

It is my opinion that coral calcium is too closely related to calcium, and should be merged into this article. Coral Calcium has become a POV Fork that needs to be monitored to avoid contradictions between articles. Magnonimous (talk) 01:37, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

  • Oppose: Coral Calcium is notable for the marketing that was used to promote it, and the dubious claims made about it. While, of course, it should have some overlap with Calcium, what's notable about Coral Calcium is independent and unrelated to anything else in Calcium. --Ronz (talk) 02:52, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
  • Counter: Coral Calcium has become a POV Fork that does not belong in encyclopedic media. Given the fact that there is not enough reliable information about coral calcium to create a neutral article, it should be merged back into the calcium supplement section, and radical views removed. If you feel so strongly about the marketing of coral calcium, we should merge this back into calcium, and then make a new article called "coral calcium claims" which contain specific points of view about coral calcium, with supporting reasons for each side's opinion. Magnonimous (talk) 18:01, 18 December 2007 (UTC)
  • Oppose. Although Wikipedia officially discourages POV forks for the sake of isolating a POV completely, they are permitted so long as a summary of the other POV is left in the original article. In many places they are unavoidable to separate the believers from the unbelievers in whatever. Thus, trinitarian vs. nontrinitarian. There's a longish article in Wikipedia on Apollo Moon Landing hoax accusations. And another on Flat Earth Society, and yet another on Young Earth creationism. Another on Free energy suppression. One on homeopathy. These are minority opinions important enough to have articles devoted mainly to them as major topics (though most of the contra evidence actually exists in other articles). For eample, the article on the Apollo program has a mention of the hoax wiki, and that's enough.

    As for the present subject, I'm not sure that coral calcium is important enough to even be worth a mention as a summary. Perhaps it could go in a dietary calcium section, in an embedded list with calcium citrate, TUMS, caltrate, and all the other supplements out there. But even those products are probably inappropriately commercial and minor for a mention in the element article, and should (at most) be an embedded list in the calcium in biology sub-article. SBHarris 03:47, 27 January 2008 (UTC