In the ancient world, only seven metals were identified and named, gold, silver, lead, iron, copper, mercury, and tin.

Tin probably doesn't rank up there with the other metals in terms of interestingness or usefulness.

Nonetheless, Tin was incredibly important to the ancient world

and remains incredibly important today.

In fact, Tin is probably playing a role in your life right now, and you don't even know it.

Learn more about the wonderful world of Tin on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Book your ticket to happiness with Sun Express Airlines. So, yeah, yeah, tin. I am aware that tin is not the sexiest of metals. It is invaluable like silver or gold. It is in the basis of industry like iron or electrical distribution like copper.

It doesn't even have the cool ability to turn to a liquid at room temperature like mercury. the Tinfoil, the Tin Man. And none of them imply strength, wealth, or speed. So why am I doing an episode on Tin?

Well, that is what you will find out, and by the end of this episode I hope you will have a greater

appreciation for this often overlooked metal.

So what is tin?

Looking at it chemically, tin is element number 50 on the periodic table.

It's a silvery metal that has several interesting attributes, including being very soft and

easy to cut.

It doesn't corrode and it has a very low melting point.

All of these attributes are going to be seen to be important later on.

It also has the distinction of having more stable isotopes than any other element with 10. the And that's because it comes from the Latin word for tin, which is stanum.

The discovery of tin probably happened by accident.

The best bet is that trace amounts of tin probably found their way into other metals, most probably copper.

Its mixture with copper was the first real big use of tin,

because tin and copper make an alloy that's known as bronze.

Bronze was a huge step forward. alloy that's known as bronze.

Bronze was a huge step forward for human development.

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