Atomic number: 25

Symbol: Mn

Average atomic mass: 54.938 049

Manganese is a free element, or a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses. It is vital to iron and steel production because of its sulfur-fixing, deoxidizing, and alloying properties. Manganese ions are a required trace mineral for all known living organisms. Some manganese compounds are used for gasoline to boost octane, to decolorize glass, and make some older forms of batteries.

It is paramagnetic, which means that it does not have any magnetic properties on its own, but is attracted to outside magnetic fields.

The origins of Manganese date back to ancient Greece, but it was not accepted as an element until 1774, when chemist Johan Gottlieb Gahn isolated to element by reduction of the dioxide with carbon.
