Page 37 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

For more on carbon, see Volume 8: Carbon in the Elements set.
remove the colour from materials and is put into gunpowder.
Carbon-14, an isotope with a half-life of 5,730 years, helps date organic materials such as archaeological specimens.
Geology
Biology
Carbon is part of all living matter and
is essential to all life. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants from the air and used to help make tissues.The carbon is passed on to animals when they eat plant food.
Some compounds of carbon are dangerous, for example, methane, ethane and cyanide.
 Coal is made of carbon and is an important fossil fuel.
Carbon is found in all stars and also in
the atmosphere of many planets. Comets also contain carbon. Carbon appears as diamond, graphite and in a non-crystalline black form (for example, lamp black, soot). It has recently been discovered in a form called buckminsterfullerene.The main location of diamonds is in volcanic pipes. The atmosphere of the Earth is 4% carbon dioxide; on Mars it is 96%. Carbon dioxide is found in all water. It is also found in rocks such as limestone (CaCO3) as well
as in all fossil fuel deposits (hydrocarbons).
 The natural carbon cycle. Note that, in addition, over geologic time carbon is stored in rocks. It is released when fossil fuels are burned.
Plants release carbon dioxide when they are burned (a rapid form of decay).
The main source of carbon dioxide is the air.
As sugars are oxidised by plants for energy, carbon dioxide is released back into the air.
As sugars are oxidised by animals for energy, carbon dioxide is released back to the air.
Carbon-based chemicals are absorbed by animals as they consume plant matter.
Organisms in the soil break down dead plant and animal tissue, and carbon dioxide gas is released as it decays.
Plants make sugars by photosynthesising sugars using carbon dioxide from the air.
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