Roy Palmer, age 12, of Visalia, Calif., for his question:

WHAT IS TUNGSTEN?

Tungsten is a silver white, hard metal and is one of the chemical elements. It is also called wolfram.

Tungsten has the highest melting point of all metals and, for this reason, it is used in equipment that must withstand high temperatures. It is added to steel to make steel harder, stronger and more elastic. Tungsten steel tools outlast ordinary steel tools.

The electronics industry uses a lot of tungsten. It is ideal when used as filaments in vacuum tubes which are used in radios, television sets and other electronic equipment.

Tungsten can be found in nature in the minerals scheelite and wolframite. In the United States, the element is found in Colorado and California.