I know that Aluminum is a metal, and it's corrosive, but I've been wondering about how Aluminum Foil is created. Is it the same as the metal? Just pounded down? or is it a mixture of different elements?
It is made by rolling an aluminum block thinner and thinner. Metal foil, such as tin foil had been around for years. The first plant designed for rolling aluminum foil was opened in 1910. NASA was not in existence then. It appears the inventor was: Hans Christian Oersted Year Invented: 1825 P.S. Aluminum is not corrosive. corrosive means it corrodes other things (as acid would). It does corrode. It is also the most reactive metal. It is oxidized immediately upon exposure to air - why it is difficult to solder. The aluminum oxide is not whetted by solder. Aluminum oxide is a ceramic, called Alumina. Anodized aluminum has has a thick layer of aluminum oxide formed on its surface
Aluminum is brought to a factory in blocks about a foot thick and is slowly pushed through many massive rollers along a conveyor belt while lubricant is sprayed over the whole machine, then at the end it is sucked into giant rolls to be taken off to other places to be made into commercial aluminum foil or used as insulation in machines. The next part is more stuff that veers away from your original question: Aluminum is the 13th element in the periodic table, and it comes after magnesium and before silicon. So it is in fact its own element, and therefore is used in alloys with some other elements. Aluminum foil was originally invented by NASA to be used for their own purposes, but then was made for the public as many of their inventions have been over the years.
