Talk:Phosphorus

WikiProject Elements

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).

Information Sources

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.

Phosphor redirect

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

Discovery of Phosphorus

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.

March 2025

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)

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)

Food-additive content needs re-organization

Talk:Phosphoric acid/Archives/2026#Link to the Food Additive Section on Phosphorus found that we used to have a clearly identified section about this aspect of the element, but that it has now gotten moved into a section with a title that does not indicate this idea, even though it's an approved public-facing use. I'm not sure how best to re-organize here. Please see that other talk-page for fuller diagnosis. DMacks (talk) 18:37, 24 January 2026 (UTC)