Silicon

Silicon is a chemical element. Its atomic number is 14 on the periodic table. Its symbol is Si. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid. It is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic table.

Silicon looks like a metal, but cannot do everything that a metal can, like conduct electricity well. Silicon is used a lot in today's computers and nearly every other electronic device as well. Germanium can also be used in computers, but silicon is much easier to find. 

For example, all of the sand found at the beach is made of small cubes of  silicon dioxide also known as  silica. Glass is made by heating sand hot enough until it melts. Glass made from silicon can be made in different colours by adding colouring compounds. Many rocks and minerals are composed of compounds of silicon and oxygen called silicates.

 Silicon in computers 
Silicon is a semiconductor, and much used in computers. A typical desktop computer contains several dozen integrated circuits made mostly of silicon. A super-pure isotope of silicon, silicon-28, can now be made 40 times more pure than before. It is very important for the next big development in computers. This stores "qubits" in atoms of another element, like phosphorus, embedded in a tiny layer of ultra-pure silicon-28. These qubits can simultaneously encode a one and a zero, for incredibly fast and complex calculations.Webb, Jonathan 2014. Purer-than-pure silicon solves problem for quantum tech. BBC News Science & Environment  

Related pages
 List of common elements

 References 

Category:Metalloids
Silicon
Category:Semiconductors