THE BEECHMONT CREST SCIENCE ZONE
LEARNING THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS
Nitrogen
Name origin: Greek nitron + genes = “soda forming”
Symbol: N
Atomic number: 7
Atomic weight: 14.0067
- Nitrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the universe. Nitrogen gas is the most abundant gas in the earth’s atmosphere. (Air contains about 80% nitrogen.)
- Nitrogen is one of the Group-VA elements. Although it is fairly inactive in its pure form, several nitrogen compounds are very reactive.
- For industrial applications, nitrogen is obtained from liquefied air. Since nitrogen can be extracted from the atmosphere, a virtually inexhaustible supply of the element exists in nature.
- Nearly all carbon found in nature is carbon-12, one of the seven carbon isotopes. Carbon has isotopes with atomic weights between 9 and 15.
