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What
the name means:
The name Thulium derives from the Greek
word Thule, meaning the north of the
world, the region now known as Scandinavia.
Who
identified
thulium? Thulium was identified
by the Swedish scientist, Per Theodor Cleve
in 1879.
About
thulium: Thulium
is one of the members of the group of
elements know as the rare earths. There are
sixteen elements in this group. The word
“earth” was used to describe the oxide of
metals. The word “rare” was applied to
these sixteen elements because it was
believed that their metal oxides were not
present in any great quantity in the
Earth’s crust. In fact, for most of the
elements in this group, this is not the
case. Their metal oxides are quite
abundant, although they often occur mixed
with other compounds. |