What’s the difference between Iron That we consume and Iron that we use to make swords/Armors/Bullets
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Iron is the metal in it’s pure form. An alloy of iron and carbon is steel which is used blades and armor.
For the most part we eat iron that is bonded to other atoms to produce compounds. Most of these are already in organic compounds that are being used by organisms that we are consuming.
The iron that is used for construction is molecular iron, which is not chemically bonded to anything although it might be physically mixed with another substance to form an alloy.
Iron was in everyday life is today most steel. That is an ally with iron, other metal, and carbon. It could Mild stele can contain 99% iron 0.9% manganese and 0.1% carbon. In practice, there are small amounts of other metals and nonmetal iron will be in the high 90%.
You could make metal of just iron atoms the problem is that is mechanical properties is a lot work so we make mostly different types of steel.
The iron in flood is iron that has reacted with other molecules. You can compare it to rust which is iron that has reacted with oxygen, its chemical formula is Fe2O3 so 3 oxygen atoms per 2 iron atoms. That is still 70% iron by mass but each iron atom is heavier. But it is chemical compounds with lost of nonmetallic atoms and not just other iron atoms.
You can eat rust, It is stable and easy to and your body can use it so commonly used as an iron supplement if diest requires that. Iron oxide is also a pigment often use to color stuff in include food. Do not ches on rust you just find but if it is just iron oxide and not in large clumps it is safe to eat in a small amount.
If you look a the chemical formula of Heme that is the form Iron has in our blood. Some of the iron will eat will just be from animal sources It has a lot more complex chemical formula than rust. But is more like rust than metallic iron because the iron atoms are in molecules with lots of nonmetal atoms. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heme
Quantity lol. You eat micrograms of iron, it takes pounds of it to shape into objects. Same element.
Atoms exist in different [oxidation states](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidation_state), which gives them different properties. By definition, [elemental is zero](https://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch2/oxnumb.html)
Iron in compounds will have different oxidation states, and thus different properties. For example, rust or [iron pyrite](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrite).
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/iron/
Iron in the diet is already in compounds that can more readily be reprocessed in digestion.
In a way, your question is similar to “what’s the difference between oxygen in the air and oxygen in water/sugar/rust”.
The iron in our body is demagnetized and microscopic. The iron in steel is binned with carbon and in a large enough quantity to rupture organs.
Not much other than size, really. Crush up some enriched cereal then run a magnet through it. It’ll come out covered in Iron dust.
The iron our body needs is more “pure” iron, the iron/steel in objects is mixed with other things.
Iron mixed with different amount of carbon make different types of steel (and cast iron), and then other elements added (manganese, nickle, zinc…) Make different types of alloys for different metal parts.
If you’re talking about the iron you get from breakfast cereals, there is no difference. That iron is literally tiny iron filings.
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