Basque is written with the Latin alphabet. The universal special letter is "ñ", which is pronounced like the "n" in "onion", and "ç" and "ü" are also used. Basque does not use "c, q, v, w, y" except for loanwords and are not considered part of the alphabet. Also, "x" is pronounced as a "sh", as in "shine".
Heinz Fischer
Heinz Fischer (born 9 October 1938) is the former president of Austria. His wife is Margit Fischer.
Chlorine
Chlorine (chemical symbol Cl) is a chemical element. Its atomic number (which is the number of protons in it) is 17, and its atomic mass is 35.45. It is part of the 7th column (halogens) on the periodic table of elements.
Chlorine is a very irritating and greenish-yellow gas. It has a strong smell like bleach. It is toxic. It can be made into a liquid when cooled. It is heavier than air.
Chlorine is highly reactive. It is more reactive than bromine but less reactive than fluorine. It reacts with most things to make chlorides. It can even burn things instead of oxygen. It dissolves in water to make a mixture of hypochlorous acid and hydrochloric acid. The more acidic it is, the more chlorine is made; the more basic it is, the more hypochlorous acid (normally turned into hypochlorite) and hydrochloric acid (normally turned into chlorides) are there. Chlorine reacts with bromides and iodides to make bromine and iodine.
Chlorine exists in several oxidation states: -1, +1, +3, +4, +5, and +7. The -1 state is most often in chloride. Chlorides are not reactive. Compounds containing chlorine in its +1 oxidation state are hypochlorites. Only one is common. They are a strong oxidizing agent, as are all + oxidation state compounds. +3 is in chlorites. +4 is in chlorine dioxide, a common chlorine compound that is not a chloride. +5 is in chlorates. +7 is in perchlorates. Hypochlorites are most reactive, while perchlorates are the least reactive.
Many organic compounds have chlorine in them. Freon has chlorine in it. PVC (poly-vinyl chloride), a common plastic, has chlorine in it.
Chlorine oxides can be made, but most of them are very reactive and unstable.
Chlorine is not found as an element. Sodium chloride is the most common chlorine ore. It is in the ocean (sea salt) and in the ground (rock salt). There are some organic compounds that have chlorine in them, too.
It is made by electrolysis (the passing of electricity through a solution to make chemical reactions happen) of sodium chloride. This is known as the chloralkali process. It can also be made by reacting hydrogen chloride with oxygen and a catalyst. It can be made in the laboratory by reacting manganese dioxide with hydrochloric acid. It is made when sodium hypochlorite reacts with hydrochloric acid. This is a dangerous reaction that can happen without anyone knowing.
As of 2021, the main use of chlorine is for bleach. It is also added to water, as a way of purifying it. Chlorine is both very reactive, and very poisonous. It will act as a disinfectant: if it is added to water, it will kill off bacteria and other organisms. Swimming pools are often filled with water that has been treated that way.
Germany used chlorine as a chemical weapon in the First World War. They used it at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. According to soldiers, which were present at the battle, the chlorine smelled like a mixture of pepper and pineapple. It also tasted metallic and stung the back of the throat and chest. Chlorine reacts with water in the mucosa of the lungs to form hydrochloric acid. Hydrochloric acid will destroy living tissue. It often kills. Gas masks with activated charcoal or other filters can protect the respiratory system. This makes chlorine gas much less deadly than other chemical weapons. German scientist Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin was the first to use it. Together with IG Farben, he developed methods of how to use chlorine gas against an entrenched enemy. Chlorine is heavier than air, so it will stay in the trenches. On 22nd April, 1915, German forces attacked the French army. With of chlorine, they only killed about 1.200 French soldiers. For this reason, chlorine was soon replaced with the more deadly phosgene and mustard gas.
Because it is easily available, chlorine is still used as a chemical weapon in war. That way, it has been used in the Syrian civil war. It has also been used in an improvised explosive device in Iraq, in 2015.
Chlorine is used to make many compounds that are important: both chloroform and carbon tetrachloride contain chlorine.
It was discovered in 1774 by Carl Wilhelm Scheele who thought it had oxygen in it. Chlorine was named in 1810 by Humphry Davy who insisted it was an element. The US made all water chlorinated (added chlorine to water) by 1918.
It is poisonous in large amounts and can damage skin. When it is inhaled (breathed in), it irritates the lungs, eyes, and skin badly. It can cause fire with some things because it is very reactive. It is heavier than air, so it can fill up enclosed spaces.
Halogen
The halogens are chemical elements under the second-to-right column in the periodic table, also known as Group 17. The elements in the group are fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine, and tennessine. Halogen literally means "salt becomer", but it is often cited to mean "salt producer". They are very reactive, so they are likely to join with other elements on the left side of the periodic table to make compounds. This is due to the fact that they are missing one electron. They are rarely found alone in nature. Fluorine is the most reactive, while iodine is the least reactive. Astatine is very radioactive and hard to get.
Vitamin
A vitamin is a chemical compound that is needed in small amounts for the human body to work correctly. They include Vitamin A, many B vitamins (like B, B, B, B, and B), Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, and Vitamin K. For example, citrus fruits such as oranges and lemons contain vitamin C.
The term was coined in 1912 by biochemist Casimir Funk, who isolated a complex of micronutrients and proposed the complex be named "vitamine". By convention the word "vitamin" does not include other essential nutrients, such as certain minerals, essential fatty acids and essential amino acids.
Thirteen vitamins are recognized at present. Vitamins are classified by their biological and chemical activity, and not their structure. Each vitamin name (the word "vitamin" followed by a letter) refers to a number of vitamer compounds which all show the same biological activity. For example, "vitamin A" refers to several different chemicals. Vitamers convert to the active form of the vitamin in the body. They are sometimes inter-convertible to one another as well.
The body does not make these chemicals. They come from other places, usually food. A short term lack of a certain vitamin is usually not a problem, because the body can store vitamins for a short time. Not having a certain vitamin for a longer period of time can lead to different diseases, depending on the vitamin. Probably the best-known of these diseases is scurvy, which results from not having enough Vitamin C. Beriberi and rickets are others.
Today, many drug companies make inexpensive pills that contain various vitamins. They help people avoid those diseases.
Vitamins can be either fat-soluble or water-soluble. Fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K) can be stored in the body, and are used when needed. Water-soluble ones only stay in the body a short time.
Currently there are no vitamins F to J. These existed at some time. Today they are no longer seen as vitamins. Some of them were also false leads, and turned out to be something else. Others were renamed as B vitamins. Today, the B vitamins are a whole complex, and not just one vitamin.