Paper

[shivi91]

Which are the two main elements of Paper?

[sweetheart]

emm.. wood.. and.. dust?? kidding! interesting to know though!

[Potatoman]

wood and bleach, water, color etc... Not sure if there are 2 MAIN elements. Actual paper is only wood.

[New Forester]

"Sweetheart" - actually, you're very close to right on the ingredients. Shiny paper is wood pulp and china clay. However, shivi91, I suspect you actually meant chemical elements, rather than ingredients. Paper is usually wood pulp with the lignin taken out, or cotton pulp, or other plant fibre pulp -- generally it's mainly cellulose. Cellulose is a polysaccharide, which means it has a long molecule made out of thousands of sugar molecules joined together in chains. There are various sugars, but basic ones have the formula C6 H12 O6 (or something similar), with the atoms arranged in a particular way. So that's actually three main elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. If it's shiny paper, the clay will add (if I remember right) a little aluminium, silicon and more oxygen. Ink will add small amounts of all sorts of other things too.

[fingerpie]

uranium and rock salt

[New Forester]

Dont' put that in your homework, Shivi91 -- Fingerpie is joking of course.