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
Ferrous is literally iron, hence why it is Fe on the periodic table, so a ‘ferrous metal’ is noting whether it contains iron, not whether or not it’s magnetic.
As for your other question, a pure metal is a metal composed of a single element, while an alloy has a blend of two or more elements. This can be advantageous because the alloy can have properties between the metals used or notably different–for example, bronze is an alloy of mostly copper with primarily tin as an additive, which makes it stronger and less prone to wearing down.
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