Page 4 - Curriculum Visions Dynamic Book

An element is a substance that cannot be broken down into a simpler substance by any known means. Each of the 92 naturally occurring elements is therefore one of the fundamental materials from which everything in the Universe is made. This book is about the element sulphur.
Sulphur
Sulphur is a bright yellow, tasteless solid and a very reactive element. It is found in a wide range of minerals and is one of the products of a volcanic eruption. Perhaps this is why many people of previous centuries associated sulphur (also known as brimstone) with the unpleasant afterlife known as Hell. In the New
Testament, Hell is described as a “lake that burns with fire
and brimstone”.
The pure element sulphur has always been thought to have strange properties. A spinning ball of it was used in one of the world’s first demonstrations of static electricity. It was found that when the ball was touched by a hand, the ball began to glow.
The element sulphur is a non-metal and will not dissolve in water. The pure element sulphur has very little smell. The smell you might associate
with sulphur – bad eggs – is
actually a compound of sulphur,
the gas known as hydrogen
sulphide. Sulphur compounds
are also responsible for the
smell in garlic, mustard, onions
and cabbage. A sulphur compound even gives skunks their ferociously powerful and long-lasting smell.
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