Chemistry
Elements & symbols
118 basic substances and their shorthand signs: the alphabet chemistry writes with.
What you need first
Gold in jewellery, iron in a bike frame, oxygen in every breath: elements are around you all day, even if you rarely call them by name. Once you know their symbols, you can suddenly read labels, packaging, and formulas like a secret code that is no longer secret.
The alphabet of chemistry
Today 118 elements are known, about 90 of them occur in nature and researchers make the rest in the laboratory. An element is a basic substance made of only one kind of atom. Just as our language builds countless words from a few letters, nature builds every substance in the world from these elements: water, sugar, plastic, rock, and you yourself.
Symbols with history
Every element has a symbol made of one or two letters. The first letter is always capital, the second always lowercase. Many symbols come from Latin: Fe stands for iron (ferrum), Ag for silver (argentum), and Au for gold (aurum). That is why some symbols do not seem to match the everyday name at first glance.
Elements in your everyday life
You already know many elements: aluminium (Al) as kitchen foil, copper (Cu) in cables, helium (He) in balloons, carbon (C) in pencil leads, and nitrogen (N) as the main part of the air. Table salt also contains two elements, namely sodium (Na) and chlorine (Cl). In a formula, every capital letter starts a new symbol, and the small numbers only count how often an atom appears. That way you can read CO₂ with ease: one carbon atom, two oxygen atoms, so two different elements.
Exercises
0 of 6 solvedTime to try it yourself. You can't break anything, every attempt counts.
What is the symbol for oxygen?
What is the maximum number of letters in an element symbol?
Which element does the symbol Fe stand for?
Match each element symbol to its element.
Which element hides behind the symbol Au?
An element is a basic substance made of only one kind of ….
Where this leads