Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature with a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed.
Core Principles & Analysis
Zinc was smelted on an industrial scale in medieval India at Zawar centuries before Andreas Marggraf's 1746 isolation established it as a metal in Europe.
The bluish-white metal is brittle at room temperature, burns with a blue-green flame, and corrodes preferentially to iron, protecting it sacrificially.
Roughly half of all zinc galvanizes steel against rust, and it also forms brass, battery anodes, die-cast parts, and the zinc oxide in sunscreen, while some 300 human enzymes require it.