• Question: WHAT IS SODIUM

    Asked by exit45zip to Souvik, Sabine, Maria, John, Faye, Armin on 9 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by Meghan.
    • Photo: Souvik Kundu

      Souvik Kundu answered on 9 Nov 2019:

      Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal.

    • Photo: Maria McNamara

      Maria McNamara answered on 9 Nov 2019:

      I’d like to add to Souvik’s answer: sodium is essential for life. Our bodies use sodium for transmitting nerve impulses – all the signals which our brain sends to muscles and other cells around the body require sodium. We lose a lot of sodium in our sweat so it’s important that we eat some salt in our foods. Sodium is also important to help maintain the salt balance in our blood. Too much salt is a bad thing though as it contributes to hypertension – high blood pressure.

      We get salt from rock deposits of the mineral halite – which is basically composed of sodium chloride with some impurities. We have a big geological deposit of halite in southeast Antrim that has been mined commercially for years.

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