Argon is a colorless, odorless noble gas that makes up 0.93% of the Earth's atmosphere. It was discovered in 1894 by Sir William Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh, who isolated it by fractional distillation of liquid air. Argon is used in light bulbs, lasers, welding, fire extinguishers, and to preserve museum artifacts due to its chemical inertness.

1. Argon
Element Project
By: Samantha Holtgrefe

2. Properties of Argon
Noble Gas ( most Noble Gas on Earth)
Element # 18
Melting Point : -189.35 degrees Celsius
Boiling Point: -185.85 degrees Celsius
Gas at room temperature, colorless
Found in small amounts of air, and Earths
atmosphere
Density: 1.784 g/L
Argon costs between $2.80 to $4.80 per
liter.

3. Uses of Argon
• Fills light bulbs to protect the filament
• Forms inert atmosphere that is good for many forms of
welding
• Extinguishes fires without damaging equipment
• Used in museums to protect and preserve old documents
and materials
• Argon lasers are
used in surgery to weld
arteries, destroy
tumors,
or correct eye defects.
• Used in fluorescent tubes,
usually emits a blue light

4. Argon was discovered in 1894
by Sir William Ramsay a Scottish
chemist (above), and Lord
Rayleigh an English chemist. It
was the first of the noble gases
to be isolated.
•Makes up 0.93%
of the Earths
atmosphere.
•Argon is
obtained from
the air as a
byproduct of the
production of
oxygen and
nitrogen.

5. • Rayleigh and Ramsay discovered argon by the
fractional distillation of liquid air. Fractional
distillation is the process of letting liquid air
slowly warm up. As the air warms, different
elements change from a liquid back to a gas. The
portion of air that changes back to a gas at -
185.86oC (-302.55oF ) is argon.
• The symbol A was used for argon until the 1950s
when chemists agreed to use the two letter
symbol Ar for the element.
• Argon is derived from the greek word inactive,
argos. This is because it undergoes almost no
chemical reaction

6. • Three isotopes of argon exist naturally. They
are argon-36, argon-38, and argon-40
• Six radioactive isotopes of argon are known
also.

7. Bibliography
• http://www.atomic-
elements.info/argon_data.html
• http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/
ele018.html/
• http://www.chemicool.com/element/arg
on.html