I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around classifying metals. So far, I’ve seen two divisions:
1. Pure metals and Alloys
2. Ferrous and Non-ferrous
But I haven’t exactly seen a source that takes both classification divisions into account. Sources keep saying ferrous metals contain iron, so is iron the only pure metal that’s ferrous? Is iron even a ferrous metal? What about the other magnetic metals like nickel and cobalt?
In: Chemistry
The latin term for iron is ferrum that’s why it is Fe on the periodic table. Ferrous is derived from the word meaning iron and just means iron containing. Classifying something as ferrous or non-ferrous is just making a distinction if it contains iron or not because iron is a common metal that has certain properties that we need to be aware of in chemistry and physics.
The two classifications are used for different reasons which is why you don’t see them used together. You’re mainly only concerned whether alloys are ferrous or not. If you are dealing with pure metals than you deal with the metal itself.
Iron in many other languages start with “fer” or some derivative. In french it is literally “fer”
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