Chemical Symbols

Chemical Symbols and Formulas

Multiple Choice

What do you do in a play?

• Ac

• Fe

• He

• F

Multiple Choice

Whichis the tasting part of your tongue?

• K

• Fe

• S

• W

Multiple Choice

What do you call a non-exciting person

• S

• F

• B

• He

Symbols

•A Chemical symbol is an abbreviation of a name of an element.

•Capital letter if only one letter.

•Only first letter capital if more than one letter

Sybols

•Using standardized chemical symbols is important as each country, and language, have different words for each element.

Multiple Choice

Why is the Periodic Table so Important?

• It's for lazy scientists to not have to write so much

• It's not really that important

• It is a Universal way for scientists to talk elements

John Dalton

• John Dalton, an English Chemist, represented some elements with symbols in 1908. China also had a set of symbols that were used for identifying the elements.

Example

•Sodium comes from the word sodanum, a headache remedy, and it’s symbol (Na) comes from the Latin word Natrium.

Chemical Formulas

•A chemical formula is the combination of symbols that represent a particular compound.

•The chemical formula indicates which elements are present in the compound and in what amounts.

Ex. 1: Water molecule

H2O: 2 atoms of hydrogen, 1 atom of oxygen

Ex. 2: Iron Oxide molecule

Fe2O3: 2 atoms of iron, 3 atom of oxygen

Multiple Choice

Question!

How many Hydrogen atoms in H₂O?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Multiple Choice

How many Sulfur atoms in SO4?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

Multiple Choice

How many Sodium atoms in NaCL?

• 1

• 2

• 3

• 4

•Each chemical symbol in a formula represents an element. If only one element is present in a compound, no number is included.

•

•If there is more than one atom of that element in the compound, the symbol is followed by a number written below the line. This number is called a subscript.