• Question: @Christie What was the first element discovered?

    Asked by Tom to Christie on 15 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Christie Waddington

      Christie Waddington answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      This is actually a tough question and no one knows for sure! It is most likely that Copper (Cu) was the first found by humans, since the oldest existing sample we have is from 6000BCE and it was most likely used as early as 9000BCE.

      In terms of what the first element to be chemically discovered was, it is Phosphorous (P). Phosphorous was first isolated from urine in 1669 by Mr Hennig Brand, a German alchemist.

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