Names and Symbols for the Elements

The names of the chemical elements have come from many sources. Sometimes the names come from descriptions of the element s properties, sometimes the name reflects the place where the element was discovered, and sometimes the name honors a famous scientist. 

or German words describing a property of the element 

52 Chapter 3 Chemical Foundations Elements, Atoms, and Ions 

We all know that certain chemical elements, such as calcium, carbon, nitrogen, and iron, are essential for humans to live. Many other elements, present in tiny amounts, are also essential for life. 

Exposure to trace elements in water, food, and air also affects our health. Exposure to aluminum in baked goods and cheese as well as from cookware and utensils is of concern to scientists. 

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The basic materials of systematic chemical nomenclature are the element names and symbols, which are, of themselves, trivial, with the exception of the systematic, provisional names and symbols for the elements of atomic number greater than 109. These provisional names will be superseded eventually by trivial names and symbols. In any case, they make little impact on general chemical practice. 

Write the name and symbol for the elements that fit the following descriptions. 

Now that we have learned some of the basics of chemistry including names and symbols for the elements, dimensional analysis and a good amount of chemical terminology we are ready to begin learning to solve chemistry problems. 

In Chapter 3, we studied the names and symbols for the elements as well as their location on the periodic table. In Chapter 5, we investigated the composition of the atom and learned that all atoms are composed of protons, electrons, and neutrons that a particular element is defined by the number of protons it contains and that atoms are uncharged because they contain equal numbers of protons and electrons. 

The separate question of names and symbols for the new elements has, unfortunately, taken even longer to resolve, but definitive recommendations were ratified by lUPAC in August 1997 and have been generally accepted. It is clearly both unsatisfactory and confusing to have more than one name in current use for a given element and to have the same name being applied to two different elements. For this reason the present treatment refers to the individual elements by means of their atomic numbers. However, to help readers with the nomenclature used in the references cited, a list of the various names that are in use or that have been suggested from time to time is summarised in Table 31.7. 

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as new elements were identified, the discoverer received the honor of naming the element. Different trends in assigning names developed at different times. Element names were based on mythological figures, celestial bodies, color, chemical properties, geographical areas, minerals, derived names, and people. Table 5.3 gives the derivation of names and symbols for the common elements. 

The Names and Symbols of the Elements. The names of the ele ments are given in order of atomic number in Table 4-1. The chemical symbols of the elements, used as abbreviations for their names, are also given in the table. These symbols are usually the initial letters of the names, plus another letter when necessary. In some cases the initial letters of Latin names are used Fe for iron (ferrum), Cu for copper (cuprum), Ag for silver (argentum), Au for gold (aurum), Hg for mercury (hydrargyrum). Th system of chemical symbols was proposed by the great Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848) in 1811. 

A short list of symbols of common elements is given in Table 1 -2. Learning this list will be helpful. Many s)mibols consist of the first one or two letters of the element s English name. Some are derived from the element s Latin name (indicated in parentheses in Table 1-2) and one, W for tungsten, is from the German Wolfram. Names and symbols for additional elements should be learned as they are encountered. 

Each element has an internationally accepted symbol to represent it. The periodic table at the back of this book includes both the names and symbols of the elements. Note that symbols for most elements are merely abbreviations of their names, consisting of either one or two letters. Three letter symbols are used for elements over number 103. The first letter of the symbol is always written as a capital letter the second and third letters, if any, are written as lowercase letters. The symbols of a few elements do not suggest their English names, but are derived from the Latin or German names of the elements. 

Give the names and symbols for the common elements. (Check with your instructor to find out which names and symbols you need to know.)... 

Convert between names and symbols for the common elements. See Table 2.1. 

Write the names and symbols for four elements in each of the following categories (a) nonmetal, (b) metal,... 

Use your flashcards to learn the names and symbols for these elements. 

What makes an atom of one element different from an atom of another element is that the atoms of each element have a characteristic number of protons. Indeed, the number of protons in an atom of any particular element is called that element s atomic number. Because an atom has no net electrical charge, the number of electrons it contains must equal the number of protons. All atoms of carbon, for example, have six protons and six electrons, whereas all atoms of oxygen have eight protons and eight electrons. Thus, carbon has atomic number 6, and oxygen has atomic number 8. The atomic number of each element is listed with the name and symbol of the element on the inside front cover of the text. 

Write the names and symbols for the 14 elements that have only one letter as their symbol. (See periodic table on inside front cover.)... 

The decision on the priority of the discovery of a new chemical element is the responsibility of the lUPAC. The detailed definition of the criteria for the discovery of a new element was prepared by the Transfermium Working Group (Barber et aL 1992). O Table 19.2 displays the elements for which the priority of discovery has been assigned. The lUPAC accepted the following names and symbols for the transactinides (Sargeson 1997). The laboratories associated with their discovery as accepted by lUPAC are given in parentheses (Barber et al. 1992, 2009 Karol et al. 2001, 2003). 

Without referring to a periodic table, write the name and symbol for an element in each of these groups 1 A, 2A, 3A, 4A 5A 6A, 7A, 8A, transition metals. 

Draw a lar outline of the Periodic Table and mark in the names and symbols for the first twenty elements. Use the table on page 202 to help you. 

Name and give the symbol for the element with the characteristic given below ... 

The names and symbols for elements 110 through 118 have not yet been chosen ... 

All elements are assigned a one- or two-letter chemical symbol, which is used in writing out chemical formulas and reactions. The names and symbols for some of the elements commonly found in living things are carbon, C oxygen, O hydrogen, H nitrogen, N phosphorus, P and sulfur, S. 

The names and symbols for elements 112-118 are under review. The temporary system recommended by J. Chatt, Pure Appl. Chem., 51, 381-384 (1979) is used above. The names of elements 101-109 were agreed in 1997 (See Pure Appl. Chem., 69, 2471-2473 (1997)), for element 110 in 2003 (see Pure Appl. Chem., 75, 1613-1615 (2003)) and for element 111 in 2004 (see Pure Appl. Chem., 76, 2101-2103 (2004)). 

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