the.com/fluorine
The universe's angriest element, too reactive to exist unbonded in nature.
means A pale yellow, extremely reactive element (atomic number 9) that forms compounds called fluorides, used in everything from toothpaste to Teflon to nuclear fuel processing.
from Named from fluorite, the mineral (calcium fluoride) chemists first isolated it from, whose own name traces to the Latin 'fluere,' meaning 'to flow' — fluorite was prized as a flux, a substance added to metal ores to make them melt and flow more easily. So the most reactive element on the periodic table is, etymologically, just named for a rock that helped things melt smoothly.
- reactivity
- corrodes glass, water, and most chemists' confidence
- discovery cost
- killed or blinded several 19th-century chemists isolating it
- toothpaste tie
- tamed into fluoride, now guards your teeth nightly
- electronegativity
- most electron-greedy element on the periodic table