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Article changed over to new Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by maveric149. Elementbox converted 10:31, 23 Jun 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 04:14, 16 Jun 2005).

Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Phosphorus. Additional text was taken directly from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org).

Data for the table was obtained from the sources listed on the main page and Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements but was reformatted and converted into SI units.

Is there some special reason for redirecting phosphor to this page? If not I will change it, as in modern usage phosphors have little to do with phosphorus --Roger 12:40 UTC, 1 Sep 2003

Phosphorus was actualy made in Roman times when early scientist had the theory that something with the same color as another they could turn it into the other. so scientist colected urine from military barracs and other places in order to "create" gold.^{[citation needed]}

I've tagged this with the "contradicts another article". This article claims ~1% content in the earth's crust, Abundance of elements in Earth's crust claims 1/10th that which intuitively seems low. This article has no source, but the other only has the CRC handbook generically applied to the entire column of the table containing that info and could have easily been transcribed with the wrong number of decimal places. Or vice versa. They should be brought into line either way. A Shortfall Of Gravitas (talk) 10:34, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Someone else has apparently fixed this contradiction, it should be 0.1% which is in line with various other sources after a quick Google. Atheist723 (talk) 07:06, 21 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The abundance of phosphorus is 1050 ppm (11th most abundant element). However, the abundance of phosphorus is expected to decrease by 2050, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. 2603:8080:D03:89D4:3DF3:6D11:93E2:5C31 (talk) 20:49, 1 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"A wide range of organophosphorus compounds are used for their toxicity as pesticides (herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, etc.) and weaponised as nerve agents against enemy humans." Also, not like it's a surefire guarantee but all but 4 countries on the planet are either signatories of or agreed to the chemical weapons convention, and the last time someone used an organophosphate as a weapon they got half their country set on fire by joint forces from multiple signatories pretty quick. North Korea is probably stupid enough and has a chemical weapons program, but all that will last as long as it takes for them to attack someone and the US to assassinate all the leadership with knife missiles launched from predator drones in retaliation, then call it a "mild argument" so that fits into the rules of war somehow. A Shortfall Of Gravitas (talk) 11:11, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, quite a few martian editors contribute. Their crap needs to be replaced or at least removed. The more that reliable, referenced facts seep in, the less these martians will be inclined to contribute. At least that is the plan. Just be grateful that we are dealing with science and not with Taylor Swift or pubs in Brighton.--Smokefoot (talk) 20:47, 13 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I am a new editor. I am reading The Devil's Element by Dan Egan (2023) and on page 3-4 the author describes an interview with Gerd Simanski about an event in 2014 when he went beach combing near the Baltic Sea. Simanski picked up what he thought was a small shell fossil and put it in his trouser pocket. Pretty soon he noticed his trousers on fire and ended up in the hospital with serious burns over one third of his body. I believe this represents a useful primary source anecdote worthy of inclusion in this article. Once I build my editing skills I will add it unless someone does it or disagrees with its addition. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beanie39 (talk • contribs) 14:17, 2 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there @Beanie39, I took the liberty to move your comment to the bottom of the talk page, as it is usually the place to leave one when not directly responding to someone else. I removed your addition to the article of the anecdote you mention above. While I also find this story interesting, in general we prefer to avoid anecdotes in articles, unless they are key to illustrate a central point. Since the phosphorus page is a high-level page (that is, a very broad overview of many subtopics), it is best to try to limit what is on there to what is strictly relevant. The ref you added about safety risks and precautions is great however, and I have moved it at the beginning of the "Precautions" section, since it goes into more detail on this topic, while the "Allotropes" subsection is more focused on physical and chemical properties itself. On an unrelated note, when writing on talk pages, remember to add ~~~~ at the end of your message/comment, as it signs the message with your username and the date (you can see that a bot did it for you in this case). I hope that helps, and if you have any question let me know! Choucas0 🐦‍⬛ ⸱ 💬 ⸱ 📋 14:42, 3 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]