Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag (Greek: άργυρος <árgyros>, Latin: argentum, both from the Indo-European root *arg- for "grey" or "shining") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal. The metal occurs naturally in its pure, free form (native silver), as an alloy with gold and other metals, and in minerals such as argentite and chlorargyrite. Most silver is produced as a byproduct of copper, gold, lead, and zinc refining.
Silver has long been valued as a precious metal, and is used as an investment, to make ornaments, jewelry, high-value tableware, utensils (hence the term silverware), and currency coins. Today, silver metal is also used in electrical contacts and conductors, in mirrors and in catalysis of chemical reactions. Its compounds are used in photographic film, and dilute silver nitrate solutions and other silver compounds are used as disinfectants and microbiocides (oligodynamic effect). While many medical antimicrobial uses of silver have been supplanted by antibiotics, further research into clinical potential continues.
Read more about Silver: Characteristics, Isotopes, Compounds, Applications, History, Occurrence and Extraction, Price, Human Exposure and Consumption
Famous quotes containing the word silver:
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 15:8.
“Maman, said Annaïse, her voice strangely weak. Here is the water.
A thin blade of silver came forward in the plain and the peasants ran alongside it, crying and singing.
...
Oh, Manuel, Manuel, why are you dead? moaned Délira.
No, said Annaïse, and she smiled through her tears, no, he is not dead.
She took the old womans hand and pressed gently against her belly where new life stirred.”
—Jacques Roumain (19071945)
“The people of coming days will know
About the casting out of my net,
And how you have leaped times out of mind
Over the little silver cords,
And think that you were hard and unkind....”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)