2. Ironically it is also the most abundant metal on earth, but because it is difficult to refine it remained very expensive until 1886.
Aluminum, one of the most abundant materials on Earth and one of the most useful materials for advanced civilizations. It takes part in most of our commercial transportation and is conveniently one of the cheapest, lightest, and strongest materials for our use. However, it wasn’t always this cheap. Here we will look through the amazing facts of the incredibly normal most of things, aluminum.
1. At one point in history, aluminum was more valuable than gold. Aluminum was estimate to be at a value of $115 per pound at the time, gold was worth less than $20 a pound.
3. Such that Napoleon did not have his utensils made of gold, instead they were made from aluminum. Now due to technological advancements, we wrap our lunches with aluminum foils.
4. The United States also build a 3kg cap to the Washington Monument out of aluminum to show off its power and wealth.
5. In 1886, Charles Martin Hall and Paul L.Tl Heroult used electrolysis to cheaply produce aluminum, dropping its value down to just $2 per pound. The process for making specifically aluminum is now coined the Hall-Héroult process in honor of these 2 revolutionary scientists.
6. Now it is less than a dollar a pound.
7. The average lifespan of an aluminum can is just over 6 weeks. That’s counting its manufacture, usage, recycling and reuse.
8. 123,000 aluminum cans are recycled … every minute.
9. Aluminum is incredibly recyclable, meaning it can literally be re-used over and over and over again with breaking down or losing its qualities.
10. Recycled aluminum only costs 5% of the energy it takes to produce it from scratch.
11. Technology over 30 years has allowed us to produce more efficiently; in 1972 a pound of aluminum could make 22 cans, 1 pound of aluminum produced in 2002 yields 34 cans. Crazy right?
use aluminum for quite a lot of our 21st century needs, such as our aircraft, cars, boats, cans, doors, cooking utensils, street lights, consumer electronics (shells usually), transmission lines, aluminum foil (obviously enough), powdered aluminum in paint, computer parts, transistors, heat-sinks, and just so much more.
13. We all know aluminum is strong but how strong exactly? Well it is strong enough such that if you placed 4 six packs of cans they could support the weight of a 2 ton car (4,000 lbs.)
14. Although Americans recycle enough aluminum every year such that we could build 13 aircraft carriers every year from the recycled material, they still discard enough of it to rebuild America’s entire commercial airplane every 3 months.
15. Aluminum is made from aluminum ores – also known as bauxite – which is obviously less refined, so for every pound of aluminum that is recycled you can save about 4 pounds of bauxite. Producing aluminum can be a dirty process so recycling is key.
Now after reading of all the benefits of recycling aluminum, it really makes you extremely weary of discarding this metal. Although incredibly abundant on Earth recycling save loads of energy and takes a significant load off the environment.
So thanks for reading, if you want to read more from this series then click this orange link.
Stewart, Doug. "Aluminum Element Facts." Aluminum. Chemicool.com, n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2012. .
"Facts About Aluminum Foil." Find Where and How to Recycle. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2012. .
"Aluminium Recycling." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 09 June 2012. Web. 07 Sept. 2012. .
"Recycling Aluminum Cans - Fun Facts." Aluminum Recycling Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2012. .