Tin (Sn), a chemical element belonging to the carbon family, Group 14 (IVa) of the periodic table. It is a soft, silvery white metal with a bluish tinge, known to the ancients in bronze, an alloy with copper. Tin is widely used for plating steel cans used as food containers, in metals used for bearings, and in solder.
Tin, with the chemical symbol Sn (from Latin: stannum), is a silvery-white, malleable, ductile metal in Group 14 of the periodic table. It is the 49th most abundant element in the Earth's crust. Tin is a relatively soft metal, with a Mohs hardness of 1.5–2. It is also quite malleable and ductile, making it easy to work with. Tin has a melting point of 231.93 °C (449.47 °F) and a boiling point of 2,270 °C (4,118 °F).
Tin is a metal that typically occurs in nature in the form of the mineral cassiterite. It is believed that tin was discovered about 6-6.5 thousand years ago, around the same time as copper1. Tin was widely known in the Mediterranean countries, Persia, and India. Egyptians imported tin from Persia for the production of bronze1. Tin is primarily obtained from the mineral cassiterite and is chiefly mined in Malaysia2.
Tin is a metal that has many uses. Such as:
Tin is relatively rare in the Earth’s crust, with only about two parts per million. Therefore, it had to be traded over long distances to meet the demand of bronze-making cultures. The main sources of tin in ancient times were China, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Africa Today, the largest producers of tin are China, Indonesia, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.