Cooling your home. Though natural gas is typically used to heat your home, you can also find gas-powered air conditioning units. The machines are usually more expensive upfront, hindering many from switching to natural gas air conditioning.
Gypsum crystals in the Cave of the Crystals in Mexico. Note person for scale. Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO 4 Â·2H 2 O. It can be used as a fertilizer, is the main constituent in many forms of plaster and in blackboard chalk, and is widely mined.he word gypsum is derived from the Greek word Î³ÏÏÎ¿Ï (gypsos), chalk or plaster. Because the quarries of the Montmartre district of Paris have long furnished burnt gypsum (calcined gypsum) used for various purposes, this dehydrated gypsum became known as plaster of Paris.
Both gypsum and lime are used as soil amendments. The usefulness of comparing them is limited because their function is different. Gypsum is added to clay and heavy soils to help them drain and improve their tilth, or ability to be tilled, and to remove salt from saline soils. Lime is added to improve the pH of acidic soils.