Will potassium metal react with ice? The still image you see above might not be the whole story. The ratio of potassium-40 to argon-40 trapped in rock is used to determine how long it is since the rock has solidified. Potassium-40 decays to argon-40 and calcium-40 with a half-life of 1.25 billion years. The radioactive isotope potassium-40 gives us a way of dating rocks.

Most people are familiar with carbon dating, which uses the decay of the radioactive carbon-14 isotope to find the ages of once-living things such as animal and plant matter.

Usually hypokalemia is caused by other issues such as diarrhea and/or vomiting, use of antibiotics, and kidney disease. It is unusual for people to be deficient in potassium solely as a result of getting too little in their diets. Symptoms include irregular heartbeat, fatigue, muscle cramps and constipation. Severe hypokalemia can be life threatening.

People whose diets are low in potassium can suffer from hypokalemia.

All plants need potassium to survive over 90% of all human use of potassium compounds is in the manufacture of plant fertilizers.

Potassium is made, along with several other elements including sulfur, and silicon, during explosive oxygen burning in supernovae. This is not normal burning, of course it is nuclear fusion. Potassium is made in the oxygen burning shell of stars when they explode. Most of the universeвЂ™s potassium atoms were made in the final moments of giant stars as they exploded in supernovae.These neurotoxins include agitoxin, charybdotoxin and margatoxin (scorpion stings), apamin (bee stings), and dendrotoxin (mamba snake bites). This can result in severe pain, or even death. Several neurotoxins work by disrupting our cellsвЂ™ biological use of potassium.

Fruit and vegetables are the best sources of potassium. Potassium is available in all meats, plants and dairy products. All living cells need potassium to maintain fluid balance, therefore we and all other forms of life on Earth need potassium minerals to survive.The commercially available 78% K, 22% Na alloy stays liquid at temperatures as low as -12.6 oC (9.3 oF). NaK alloys containing 40 to 90 percent of potassium by weight are liquids at room temperature. Potassium and its close periodic table neighbor sodium are solids at room temperature.Just a few days after isolating potassium, Davy isolated sodium for the first time using the same method. PotassiumвЂ™s symbol K comes from вЂkaliumвЂ™ the name of the element in Germany and Scandinavia. The name potassium is from the English word вЂpotashвЂ™, originally meaning an alkali extracted with water in a pot of ash of burned wood or tree leaves. He also (bravely) added potassium to hydrochloric acid and saw it burn with a bright red flame. He placed a piece of potassium in water and observed that the water, вЂњdecomposes it with great violence, an instantaneous explosion with brilliant flame. Potassium was the first metal to be isolated by electrolysis.Дavy was astonished at the new metalвЂ™s low density, observing that it floated on oil вЂ“ something no other metal would do. вЂњвЂ¦ when the minute globules of potassium burst through the crust of potash, and take fire as they entered the atmosphere, he could not contain his joy вЂ“ he actually danced about the room in ecstatic delight some little time was required for him to compose himself sufficiently to continue the experiment.вЂќ (2) (1)Д®dmund Davy, who assisted in the experiment, described Sir Humphry DavyвЂ™s reaction to the production of potassium metal, his Eureka moment: When he applied a voltage from his batteries to the potassium hydroxide, he found globules вЂњhaving a high metallic lustreвЂќ collected at the negatively charged electrode. The electrolysis was powered by the combined output of three large batteries he had built. He electrolyzed dried potassium hydroxide (potash) which he had very slightly moistened by exposing it to the moist air in his laboratory. In 1807 he isolated potassium for the first time at the Royal Institution, London. In 1806 English chemist Sir Humphry Davy discovered that chemical bonding was electrical in nature and that he could use electricity to split substances into their basic building blocks вЂ“ the chemical elements.

Potassium atomic radius