chemistry

List of chemical element name etymologies

List of chemical element name etymologies is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of chemical element name etymologies rather than just read about it. In short: This article lists the etymology of chemical elements of the periodic table. History Throughout the history of chemistry, many chemical elements have been discovered.

Key takeaways

List of chemical element name etymologies belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of chemical element name etymologies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of chemical element name etymologies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This article lists the etymology of chemical elements of the periodic table.

History Throughout the history of chemistry, many chemical elements have been discovered. In the 19th century, Dmitri Mendeleev formulated the periodic table, a table of elements which describes their structure. Because elements have been discovered at various times and places, from antiquity through the present day, their names have derived from several languages and cultures.

Named after places

Of the 118 known elements, 41 have names associated with, or specifically named after, places around the world or among astronomical objects. Of these, 32 have names tied to the places on Earth, and the other nine are named after Solar System objects; helium and selenium after the Sun and Moon; mercury (indirectly), tellurium, uranium and neptunium after the planets Mercury, Earth, Uranus and Neptune; plutonium and cerium after the dwarf planets Pluto and Ceres, both considered planets when the elements were named; and palladium after the asteroid Pallas.

Named after people

Nineteen elements are connected with the names of twenty people (as curium honours both Marie and Pierre Curie). Of these, only gadolinium and samarium occur in nature; the rest are synthetic. Fifteen elements were named after scientists; four other have indirect connection to the names of non-scientists. Only Glenn T. Seaborg and Yuri Oganessian were honoured during their lifetime by having elements named after them, and Oganessian is the only one still living. Elements named after four non-scientists in this table were actually named after a place or thing which in turn had been named after these people. Samarium was named from the mineral from which it was isolated, samarskite, which was named after Vassili Samarsky-Bykhovets. Berkelium and livermorium were named after the California cities Berkeley and Livermore, the locations of the Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories; the cities were named after George Berkeley and Robert Livermore. Americium was named after America, which was named after Amerigo Vespucci.

Named after mythological entities Also, mythological entities have had a significant impact on the naming of elements, directly or indirectly. Cerium, europium, helium, iridium, mercury, neptunium, niobium, palladium, plutonium, promethium, selenium, tantalum, titanium, thorium, uranium and vanadium are all connected to mythological deities.

Named after minerals Elements may also have been named after the minerals in which they were discovered. For example, beryllium is named after beryl.

Controversies and failed proposals

Other element names given after people have been proposed but failed to gain official international recognition. These include columbium (Cb), hahnium (Ha), joliotium (Jl), and kurchatovium (Ku), names connected to Christopher Columbus, Otto Hahn, Irène Joliot-Curie, and Igor Kurchatov; and also cassiopeium (Cp), a name coming from the constellation Cassiopeia and is hence indirectly connected to the mythological Cassiopeia.

Current naming practices and procedures

For the last two decades, IUPAC has been the governing body for naming elements. IUPAC has also provided a temporary name and symbol for unknown or recently synthesized elements.

List

See also List of chemical element naming controversies Naming of elements

References

Further reading Eric Scerri, The Periodic System, Its Story and Its Significance, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of chemical element name etymologies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of chemical element name etymologies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of chemical element name etymologies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of chemical element name etymologies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of chemical element name etymologies

In research: List of chemical element name etymologies appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of chemical element name etymologies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of chemical element name etymologies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of chemical elements, Lists of etymologies, Naming of chemical elements, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of chemical element name etymologies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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Frequently asked questions

What is List of chemical element name etymologies in simple terms?

This article lists the etymology of chemical elements of the periodic table. History Throughout the history of chemistry, many chemical elements have been discovered.

Why does List of chemical element name etymologies matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of chemical element name etymologies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of chemical element name etymologies.