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Carbon (from Latin carbo 'coal') is a chemical element; it has symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalent —meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 electrons. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table. [14]
Carbon is a very important chemical element, with a chemical symbol of C. All known life on Earth needs it to survive. Carbon has atomic mass 12 and atomic number 6. It is a nonmetal, meaning that it is not a metal. When iron is alloyed with carbon, hard steel is formed. Carbon in the form of coal is an important fuel.
Carbon, chemical element that forms more compounds than all the other elements combined. Carbon is widely distributed in coal and in the compounds that make up petroleum, natural gas, and plant and animal tissue. The carbon cycle is one of the most important of all biological processes.
The exchanges of carbon between the atmosphere and other components of the Earth system, collectively known as the carbon cycle, currently constitute important negative (dampening) feedbacks on the effect of anthropogenic carbon emissions on climate change.
Carbon cycle, in biology, circulation of carbon in various forms through nature. Carbon is a constituent of all organic compounds, many of which are essential to life on Earth. The source of the carbon found in living matter is carbon dioxide in the air or dissolved in water.
Carbon dioxide is an end product of cellular respiration in organisms that obtain energy by breaking down sugars, fats and amino acids with oxygen as part of their metabolism. This includes all plants, algae and animals and aerobic fungi and bacteria.
A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country adds to the atmosphere. Carbon footprints are usually reported in tonnes of emissions (CO 2-equivalent) per unit of comparison.
Atomic carbon, systematically named carbon and λ 0-methane, is a colourless gaseous inorganic chemical with the chemical formula C (also written [C]). It is kinetically unstable at ambient temperature and pressure, being removed through autopolymerisation.
Carbon (6 C) has 14 known isotopes, from 8 C to 20 C as well as 22 C, of which 12 C and 13 C are stable. The longest-lived radioisotope is 14 C, with a half-life of 5.70(3) × 10 3 years. This is also the only carbon radioisotope found in nature, as trace quantities are formed cosmogenically by the reaction 14 N + n → 14 C + 1 H. The most ...
The carbon cycle is the way carbon is stored and replaced on Earth. Some of the main events take hundreds of millions of years, others happen annually. The main ways that carbon gets into the carbon cycle are volcanoes, and the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas.