Symbols of chemical elements and principles of their designation

Chemistry, like any science, requires precision. The data representation system in this field of knowledge was developed for centuries, and the current standard is an optimized structure containing all the necessary information for further theoretical work with each specific element.

When writing formulas and equations it is extremely inconvenient to use whole names of substances, and today for this purpose one or two letters are used - the chemical symbols of the elements.

History

In the Ancient World, as well as in the Middle Ages, scientists used symbolic images to denote various elements, but these signs were not standardized. Only in the thirteenth century attempts were made to systematize the symbols of substances and elements, and from the 15th century newly discovered metals began to be designated by the first letters of their names. Such a naming strategy has been used in chemistry to this day.

The current state of the name system

To date, there are more than one hundred and twenty chemical elements, some of which are very problematic in nature. Not surprisingly, as early as the middle of the 19th century, science knew of the existence of only 63 of them, and there was not a single naming system, nor an integral system for presenting chemical data.

The latter task was solved in the second half of the same century by the Russian scientist DI Mendeleyev, relying on the unsuccessful attempts of his predecessors. The process of name continues today - there are several elements with numbers from 119 and above, conditionally denoted in the table by the Latin abbreviation of their serial number. The pronunciation of the symbols of the chemical elements of this category is carried out according to the Latin rules for reading numerals: 119 - unused (lit. "one hundred and nineteenth"), 120 - unbinilium ("one hundred and twentieth") and so on.

Most of the elements have their own names, originating from Latin, Greek, Arabic, German roots, in some cases reflecting the objective characteristics of substances, and in others acting as unmotivated symbols.

The etymology of some elements

As mentioned above, some names and symbols of chemical elements are based on objectively observed signs.

The name of phosphorus, glowing in the dark, comes from the Greek word "carry light." When translated into Russian, there are quite a few "talking" names: chlorine - "greenish", bromine - "foul-smelling," rubidium - "dark red", indium - "indigo". Since the chemical symbols of the elements are given in Latin letters, the direct connection of the name with the substance for the native speaker of the Russian language usually remains unnoticed.

There are also more subtle associations when naming. So, the name of selenium comes from the Greek word meaning "Moon". It happened because in nature this element is a satellite of tellurium, whose name in the same Greek means "Earth".

Similarly named and niobium. According to ancient Greek mythology, Niobe is the daughter of Tantalus. The chemical element of tantalum was discovered earlier and in its properties is similar to niobium - thus, the logical connection "father-daughter" was projected onto the "interrelations" of chemical elements.

Moreover, its name tantalum was received in honor of the famous mythological character not by chance. The fact is that the receipt of this element in its pure form was fraught with great difficulties, due to which the scientists turned to the phraseology "Tantalova flour".

Another interesting historical fact is that the name of platinum is literally translated as "silver", i.e., something similar, but not as valuable as silver. The reason is that this metal melts much harder than silver, and therefore for a long time did not find application and did not represent a special value.

The general principle of the name of elements

When looking at the periodic table, the first thing that catches your eye is the names and symbols of the chemical elements. It is always one or two Latin letters, the first of which is the capital letter. The choice of letters is due to the Latin name of the element. Despite the fact that the roots of the words originate from the Ancient Greek, and from Latin, and from other languages, according to the standard of the name, Latin endings are added to them.

It is interesting that most characters to the native speaker of the Russian language will be intuitively clear: aluminum, zinc, calcium or magnesium schoolboy easily remembers the first time. The situation is more complicated with those names that differ in the Russian and Latin versions. A pupil can not immediately remember that silicon is a silicide, and mercury is a hydrargyrum. Nevertheless, it will have to be remembered - the graphic image of each element is oriented to the Latin name of the substance, which will figure in chemical formulas and reactions like Si and Hg, respectively.

To remember such names, it is useful for pupils to perform exercises like: "Establish a correspondence between the symbol of a chemical element and its name".

Other ways of naming

The names of some elements originated from Arabic and were "stylized" in Latin. For example, sodium is called from the root base, which means "bubbling substance". Arab roots are also traced in the names of potassium and zirconium.

His influence was also on the German language. From it, names of such elements as manganese, cobalt, nickel, zinc, tungsten occur. A logical connection is not always obvious: for example, nickel is an abbreviation for a word meaning "copper devil".

In rare cases, the names were translated into Russian in the form of tracing paper: hydrogenium (literally "giving birth to water") turned into hydrogen, and carbonate - into carbon.

Names and place names

More than a dozen elements are named after various scientists, including Albert Einstein, Dmitry Mendeleev, Enrico Fermi, Alfred Nobel, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Maria Curie and others.

Some names originated from other names of their own: names of cities, states, countries. For example: moscow, dubny, europium, tennessee. Not all toponyms seem familiar to the native speaker of the Russian language: it is unlikely that a person without cultural training will recognize in the word the nihon self-name of Japan - Nihon (lit .: The Land of the Rising Sun), and in hafnium - the Latin version of Copenhagen. To learn even the name of a native country in the word ruthenium is not the simplest task. Nevertheless, Russia in Latin is called Ruthenia, and it is in honor of her that the 44th chemical element is named.

Figures in the periodic table and the names of cosmic bodies: the planets of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Ceres, the asteroid of Pallas. In addition to the names of the characters of ancient Greek mythology (Tantalus, Niobium), there are also Scandinavian: thorium, vanadium.

Periodic table

In the familiar to us today periodic table, bearing the name of Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleyev, the elements are represented by series and periods. In each cell, a chemical element is designated by a chemical symbol, along with which other data are presented: its full name, serial number, electron distribution over layers, relative atomic mass. Each cell has its own color, which depends on whether the s-, p-, d- or f-element is selected.

Principles of recording

When recording isotopes and isobars, a mass number, the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, is placed on the upper left of the element symbol. In this case, an atomic number is placed on the lower left, representing the number of protons.

The charge of the ion is written to the right from above, and the number of atoms is indicated from below on the same side. Symbols of chemical elements always begin with a capital letter.

National options for writing

In the Asian-Pacific region, there are different versions of writing symbols of chemical elements, based on local methods of writing. In the Chinese notation system, the signs of radicals are used, followed by hieroglyphs in their phonetic meaning. Symbols of metals are preceded by a sign "metal" or "gold", gases - radical "pairs", nonmetals - a hieroglyph "stone".

In European countries, there are also situations when the elements of the elements when recording differ from those fixed in international tables. For example, in France, nitrogen, tungsten and beryllium have their own names in the national language and are denoted by the corresponding symbols.

Finally

Studying at school or even a higher education institution, remembering the contents of the whole periodic table is not required at all. In memory it is necessary to keep the chemical symbols of the elements that are most often found in formulas and equations, and those that are not used from time to time on the Internet or in a textbook.

However, in order to avoid errors and confusion, it is necessary to know how the data is structured in the table, in which particular source to find the required data, it is clear to remember which element names differ in the Russian and Latin versions. Otherwise, you can accidentally take Mg for manganese, and N - for sodium.

To get practice at the initial stage, do the exercises. For example, specify the symbols of chemical elements for a randomly taken sequence of names from a periodic table. As you gain experience, everything will fall into place and the question of memorizing this basic information will disappear by itself.