Elements and their symbols

The names of all the elements and their symbols are shown in the tables in the back of this book. Most of the symbols match up with the names H for hydrogen, 0 for oxygen, C for carbon. He for helium, Li for lithium. Symbols for the newer elements are easy to interpret, too. Element 101, for instance, has the symbol Md and the well-deserved name of Mendelevium. But a few of the symbols in the periodic table do not match the names of their elements. Sodium, for instance, does not have the symbol So. Instead, it is Na. Potassium isn t Po, but rather K. 

Table 1. The rare earth elements and their symbols...

Ca for calcium and Cl for chlorine. Some symbols seem to have no relationship to the name of the element, for example Na for sodium and Pb for lead. These symbols come from their Latin names, natrium for sodium and plumbum for lead. A list of some common elements and their symbols is given in Table 2.4. 

Table 2.4 Some common elements and their symbols. The Latin names of some of the elements are given in brackets.

Use the periodic table (Figure 1.1) and the list of elements and their symbols (Figure 1.2) to answer the following questions. 

Information about an element s protons and neutrons is often summarized using the chemical notation shown in Figure 2.3. The letter X represents the atomic symbol for an element. (The atomic symbol is also called the element symbol.) Each element has a different atomic symbol. All chemists, throughout the world, use the same atomic symbols. Over the coming months, you will probably learn to recognize many of these symbols instantly. Appendix G, at the back of this book, lists the elements in alphabetical order, along with their symbols. You can also find the elements and their symbols in the periodic table on the inside back cover of this textbook, and in Appendix C. (You will review and extend your understanding of the periodic table, in section 2.2.)... 

The most important symbols for beginning students to learn are given in Figure 1.5. The names of these elements and their symbols must be memorized. The elements indicated by pink shading should be learned first. Don t bother to memorize the numbers shown in the boxes with the elements. 

Elements are pure substances that contain only one kind of atom. Copper and bromine are elements. Each element has its own unique set of physical and chemical properties and is represented by a distinct chemical symbol. Table 5 shows several elements and their symbols and gives examples of how an element got its symbol. 

For convenience, chemists use symbols of one, two, or three letters to represent the elements. The first letter of a symbol is always capitalized, but any following letters are not. For example, Co is the symbol for the element cobalt, whereas CO is the formula for the carbon monoxide molecule. Table 1.1 shows the names and symbols of some of the more common elements a complete list of the elements and their symbols appears inside the front cover of this book. The symbols of some elements are derived from their Latin names—for example, Au from aurum (gold), Fe from ferrum (iron), and Na from natrium (sodium)—while most of them come from their English names. Appendix 1 gives the origin of the names and lists the discoverers of most of the elements. 

TABLE 1.1 Some Common Elements and Their Symbols... 

At present, more than one hundred elements have been characterized. A complete listing of the elements and their symbols is found on the inside front cover of this textbook. 

We use a set of symbols to represent the elements. These s)mibols can be written more quickly than names, and they occupy less space. The s)mibols for the first 109 elements consist of either a capital letter or a capital letter and a lowercase letter, such as C (carbon) or Ca (calcium). A list of the known elements and their symbols is given inside the front cover. 

A list of the most common elements and their symbols is given in... 

A description of these symmetry elements and their symbols may be found in Figs. 2.6-2.S and in Tables 2.4 and 2.5. This correspondence allows us to characterize space groups with symbols analogous to those used for the plane groups (Section 2.7.1). The international symbolfor a space group is composed of ... 

A list of the most common elements and their symbols is given in Table 4.3. You can also see the elements represented on a table in the inside front cover of this text. We will explain the form of this table (which is called the periodic table) in later chapters. 

All of the known elements and their symbols are listed on the front inside cover of this text in a table known as the periodic table. In the periodic table the elements are arranged in columns so that closely related elements are grouped together. We describe the periodic table in more detail in Section 2.5 and consider the periodically repeating properties of the elements in Chapter 7. 

Element A substance that cannot be broken down chemically into simpler substances a substance composed of a single kind of atom. For a list of elements and their symbols, see the preceding Periodic Table. 

Many atomic symbols are fairly obviously derived from the name of the element, such as the use of C for carbon in our example. For other elements, the symbol is based on the Latin name. The symbol for iron, for example, is Fe, derived from the Latin vrmrt ferrum. An atom of iron with 26 protons and 30 neutrons is represented as 26 6. A listing of some common elements whose symbols are not based on their English names is provided in Table 2.1. A full list of elements and their symbols can be found in Appendix A at the back of this book. 

The symbols and names of all the elements are given in the table on the inside front cover of this book. Table 3.3 lists the more commonly used elements and their symbols. Examine Table 3.3 carefully and you will note that most of the symbols start with the same letter as the name of the element that is represented. A number of symbols, however, appear to have no connection with the names of the elements they represent (see Table 3.4). These symbols have been carried over from earlier names (usually in Latin) of the elements and are so firmly implanted in the literature that their use is continued today. 

List six elements and their symbols in which the first letter of the symbol is different from that of the name. (Table 3.4)... 

Table 0.1 lists the names and symbols of some common elements a complete list of the elements and their symbols appears inside the front cover of this book. Although... 

Rather than full names, scientists identify elements with one- or two-letter symbols. Some common elements and their symbols are carbon, C oxygen, O nitrogen, N hydrogen, H chlorine. Cl and, sulfur, S. These chemical symbols are derived from the letters of the name of the element. The first letter of the symbol is capitalized, and the second (if applicable) is lowercase. Symbols for some elements known from ancient times come fiom earlier, usually Latin, names for example, Cu from cuprum (copper), Ag from aurum (gold), and Fe from/ern[Pg.12]

Elements are pure substances from which all other things are built. Elements cannot be broken down into simpler substances. Over the centuries, elements have been named for planets, mythological figures, colors, minerals, geographic locations, and famous people. Some sources of names of elements are listed in Table 4.1. A complete list of all the elements and their symbols are found on the inside front cover of this text. 

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