What was the first metal used by humans?

It's copper. Museums all over Henan display bronzes: huge shapes, showing the grandeur of bronze culture; The mottled appearance of patina indicates the long history of bronze culture.

The application of Shang Dynasty bronzes touched almost all aspects of social life. In the past century, the Shang Dynasty bronzes unearthed in various places have been increasing, exquisite copper handicrafts, a wide variety of copper daily necessities, bronze Yi ware that has gradually become ritual utensils, abstract and dazzling bronze ornaments, copper components and copper ornaments of huge building complexes, Jin Shengyuzhen's ** performance and bronze statues dancing with each other, all show the brilliant glory of civilization in that era.

There is also a theory that it is rumored that the earliest metal used by humans should be meteorite (natural iron meteorite).

At that time, meteorite was a material that could be obtained directly from nature and had better properties than stone. Because at that time, the level of collection and smelting of primitive humans had not yet reached the level of smelting and purifying metal crystals and even alloys. As for red copper (blunt copper) or bronze, it is recorded in historical records as the so-called "earliest metal used by mankind".

This cannot be verified, but bronze is the earliest alloy used in large quantities in China, and the main component is Cu copper.

The reason is that the activity of copper is weak, the difficulty of smelting is low, and there is even elemental copper in nature.

Copper was one of the first metals used by humans. As early as prehistoric times, people began to mine open-pit copper and use the obtained copper to make **, tools and other utensils, and the use of copper had a profound impact on the progress of early human civilization. Copper is a metal found in the earth's crust and oceans.

The amount of copper in the earth's crust is about, and in individual copper deposits, the copper content can reach 3% to 5%. Most of the copper in nature exists as a compound, that is, copper ore.

Copper is a transition element, the chemical symbol Cu, English copper, atomic number 29. Pure copper is a soft metal, the surface is reddish-orange with metallic luster when it is first cut, and the elemental color is purple-red. Good ductility, high thermal and electrical conductivity, so it is the most commonly used material in cables and electrical and electronic components, and can also be used as a building material, which can form many alloys.

Copper alloys have excellent mechanical properties and very low resistivity, the most important of which are bronze and yellow letter disturbance copper. In addition, copper is also a durable metal that can be used many times without compromising its mechanical properties.

Divalent copper salt is the most common copper compound, its hydration is often blue, and chlorine ligand is green, is the color of minerals such as azurite and turquoise, and has been widely used as a pigment in history. Copper building structures can be corroded to produce patina (basic copper carbonate). The decorative arts mainly used metallic copper and copper-containing pigments.

The activity of copper is weak, and the reaction of iron element with copper sulfate can replace copper element. Copper is insoluble in non-oxidizing acids.

The earliest metal used by humans was copper.

The earliest metal that human beings came into contact with was "gold", because the chemical properties of gold are extremely inactive, and it can exist in elemental form in nature, but the content of gold in nature is too low; The metal that humans really began to use was copper, and the chemical properties of copper were not active, and the temperature required for refining was relatively easy to achieve.

About 1 million years ago, human ancestors began to use fire, such as the Peking Man 71230,000 years ago, there are traces of the use of fire, since then human beings have an important tool to conquer nature. Once humans learned to use fire, there were more possibilities for human progress, such as eating cooked food that was easier to digest, accelerating the evolution of human intelligence, and fire also became an important tool for human ancestors to protect against other large carnivores.

Before humans learned to use metals, humans first experienced the Stone Age, which lasted about 3 million years, and the ancestors of humans at this stage were still in primitive societies. About 10,000 years ago, human ancestors first discovered the elemental gold in nature, but the content of gold in nature is too low, and the texture is soft, it is not suitable for use as a tool, but the color of gold is very special, so it is more used as an ornament.

The metal that human beings really began to use in large quantities is copper, and the content of copper in the earth's crust is about, and it is easy to enrich in the earth's crust, and some ores have a high content of copper, such as malachite, which is mainly a copper-containing carbonate, with the chemical formula Cu2(OH)2CO3. The copper oxide content is as high as 72%.

As early as 20,000 years ago, human beings had a history of firing pottery, and around 6,000 years ago, the technology of human firing pottery has made great progress, and the pottery made can also withstand higher temperatures, laying the foundation for smelting metal copper.

For example, it is possible that when people fired pottery, they piled up copper ore around as a support, so they accidentally triggered the carbon return reaction, so as to replace the copper in the copper ore, the chemical reaction equation is: C + 2Cuo = high temperature = 2Cu + CO2;

The melting point of copper is 1083, a large number of wood burning flames, the flame core temperature is about 700, the outer flame can reach 1200, it is able to melt copper, so human beings unexpectedly found that burning a certain stone will flow out of a shiny substance, and the hardness is also very high, making tools is much better than stone tools, so copper was discovered by human beings and began to use.

But also because of the backward smelting technology at that time, so the purity of the copper made is not high, more accurately a copper alloy, such as bronze is about 90% copper and 10% tin composition, but this is also a huge progress, with the improvement of copper smelting technology, later human beings found a more suitable metal iron for tools.

From the perspective of human development, copper is the earliest metal used by human beings, which is also related to the chemical stability and easy smelting of copper.

Although it was discovered later than gold, because gold is rare in nature and its texture is very soft, it is not suitable for making practical items, so "copper", a metal element that is easy to mine and hard to smelt, has been widely used.

According to historical records, as early as six or seven thousand years ago in the prehistoric era, China's ancestors began to mine open-pit copper mines, and used the obtained copper to make agricultural tools, daily necessities, etc.

The refining and use of copper not only brings great convenience to human life, but also promotes the development process of human beings faster.

But what the ancients didn't expect was that this metal, the earliest metal used by human beings, is now about to become the pinnacle of human artistic creation.

As early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties in China, bronze culture and art reached a very high level. The bronze carving technique derived from the bronze culture is a continuation of the ancient bronze manufacturing, which is famous for its combination of calligraphy and art, color painting, three-color-based, and permanent decoration.

The earliest metal used by humans was copper.

In the Chinese civilization of thousands of years, there are countless treasures, but if we trace the earliest symbols of civilization, it will inevitably think of bronze, and it also proves a problem, copper is the earliest metal used by human beings.

As early as prehistoric times, people began to mine open-pit copper mines, and used the obtained copper to make **, utensils and other utensils, and the use of copper had a profound impact on the progress of early human civilization. In the process of the development of ancient Chinese history, copper appeared as a currency, including today, with the development of science and technology, copper is still one of the very important metals in life.

Copper is a metal found in the earth's crust and oceans. The amount of copper in the earth's crust is about 3% to 5% in individual copper deposits. Most of the copper in nature exists as a compound, that is, copper mineral.

There are several important alloys for copper

1) Brass: Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, named after the color of Lu Huang. Brass has good mechanical properties and wear resistance, and can be used to make precision instruments, ship parts, gun shells, etc.

Brass sounds good when struck, so musical instruments such as gongs, cymbals, bells, and trumpets are made of brass.

2) Nautical brass: an alloy of copper, zinc and tin, resistant to seawater erosion, which can be used to make ship parts and balancers.

3) Bronze: The alloy of copper and tin is called bronze, which is named because of its blue color. In ancient times, it was a commonly used alloy (e.g. the Bronze Age in China). Bronze generally has good corrosion resistance, wear resistance, castability and excellent mechanical properties.

It is used in the manufacture of precision bearings, high-pressure bearings, seawater corrosion-resistant mechanical parts on ships, as well as various plates, tubes, bars, etc. Bronze also has an unusual property - "heat shrinkage and cold expansion", which is used to cast statues, and when cooled, it expands to make the eyebrows clearer.

4) Phosphor bronze: an alloy of copper, tin and phosphorus, which is hard and can be used to make springs.

5) Cupro: Cupronickel is an alloy of copper and nickel, and its color is the same as silver, silver is shiny, and it is not easy to rust. It is commonly used in the manufacture of coins, electrical appliances, meters, and ornaments.

6) 18k gold (rose gold): an alloy of 6 24 copper and 18 24 gold. Reddish yellow, hard, can be used to make jewelry, ornaments.

The above content reference: Encyclopedia - Copper.

The earliest metal used by humans was copper. Copper is one of the earliest metals used by human beings, and the use of copper has had a profound impact on the progress of early human civilization.

Copper is a metallic element, chemically known as cu, and is a metal found in the earth's crust and oceans, and the amount of copper in the earth's crust is about.

Copper is widely used in electrical, light industry, machinery manufacturing, construction industry, defense industry and other fields, copper can be used to make a variety of alloys.

Copper is one of the indispensable metal elements in the human body, adults need copper milligrams per day, and pregnant women, mothers, young people, and teenagers need more.