A foil is a very thin sheet of metal, usually made by hammering or rolling a piece of metal. Foils are most easily made with malleable metals, such as aluminium, copper, tin, and gold. Foils usually bend under their own weight and can be torn easily. The more malleable a metal, the thinner foil can be made with it. For example, aluminium foil is usually about 1/1000 inch (0.03 mm), whereas gold (more malleable than aluminum) can be made into foil only a few atoms thick. Such extremely thin foil is called leaf. Leaf tears very easily and must be picked up with special brushes. Hot metal work from a blacksmith In chemistry, a metal (Greek: Metallon) is an element that readily forms ions (cations) and has metallic bonds, and metals are sometimes described as a lattice of positive ions (cations) in a cloud of electrons. ... Malleability is a physical property of matter, signifying its capability of deformation, especially by hammering or rolling. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic brown Atomic mass 63. ... General Name, Symbol, Number tin, Sn, 50 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 118. ... General Name, Symbol, Number gold, Au, 79 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 6, d Appearance metallic yellow Atomic mass 196. ... Aluminium foil (aluminum foil in North American English) is aluminium prepared in thin sheets (on the order of 0. ... Properties For alternative meanings see atom (disambiguation). ... Gold leaf is a sheet of real, nearly pure gold, worked into extremely thin sheets only a few micrometres thick. ...

See also

• Aluminium foil
• Tin foil