Elements and their symbols - Their origin and Groups

Elements and their Symbols

Around 400 B.C., a Greek scholar, Democritus, suggested that matter is made up of tiny particles. We call these particles atoms. More than 2000 years later, in 1808, John Dalton (1766-1844), an English scien­tist, suggested that each element has its own kind of atom. He also sug­gested that compounds are made up of combinations of different kinds of atoms. When explaining his model, Dalton represented elements by symbols and compounds by combinations of symbols.
Dalton's model has been useful in explaining many properties of matter. Over the years, the model has been modified as scientists have gained new knowledge, but much of it has remained the same. However, Dalton's system of symbols was never widely used.
Simpler symbols based on Dalton's model were suggested by Jons Jakob Berzelius (1779-1848). He suggested that all elements be repre­sented by the first letter of their name in Latin, or by the first letter and another letter from the name. The first letter of the symbol would always be capitalized, and the second letter would be lower case. Berzelius's suggestion seemed so convenient to other scientists that his system became widely accepted and is still used today. These same symbols are now used in all languages, even those that use a different alphabet. In this way, the symbols are truly international.
The origin of symbols or the elements 
You may wonder why the symbols for the elements are based on their Latin names. First, some of the elements were known to the Latin­speaking Romans as early as two thousand years ago and were there­fore named by the Romans. A few elements occur in nature in almost pure form. Thus, they are easy to separate and identify. An example of such an element is gold (aurum in Latin), whose symbol is Au.
Second, for more than a thousand years, Latin was used throughout Europe and was considered to be the language of learning. Long after the Roman Empire had collapsed, scholars in Europe continued to use Latin for their writings. As alchemists and scientists discovered new elements, it was natural for them to give the elements Latin names. To keep the system consistent, even elements discovered very recently are given Latinized names. Examples are uranium, einsteinium, and californium.
The English names of certain elements are the same as or very similar to their names in Latin, so it is easy to recognize these symbols. Example are carbon (from carbonem in Latin, meaning charcoal), whose symbol is C, and sulfur (sulfur in Latin), whose symbol is S. Other elements, how­ever, have English names that are very different from the Latin names.
Sorne English words are related to the Latin names for elements. For example, the Romans used lead pipes in their water systems. The Latin rd for lead is plumbum, so people who work with pipes and water sys­ms today are called plumbers. A plumb bob is a heavy weight hung m a string. It is used for finding vertical lines. Since lead a high density, it makes a good weight, and so lead, or plumbum, ,gave plumb bobs their name.
Groups of Elements
There are 109 elements. Although each elements is different from every other, ther are groups of elements that have similar properties. When elements are grouped according to their properties, naming the compounds they form becomes easier.
Metals and non-metals 
Based on experiments on many elements over many years, elements with certain characteristics are considered to be metals. Metals typically have the following properties:

• They are shiny. 
• They are ductile; that is, they can be pulled (stretched) into wires. 
• They are malleable; that is, they can be beaten into sheets. 
• They are good conductors; that is, they are able to conduct (transfer) electricity and heat. 

Non metals are elements that do not have these properties. If you look The Periodic Table of the Elements, you will see that all the elements are grouped together on the left-hand side of the table, and all the non-metals, except hydrogen, are grouped together to the right of the metals.
As in nature, however, things are not so simple. Some elements fit very well into either group. Other elements have properties of both groups. Hydrogen is a gas, but when it forms compounds, it b­ehaves as a metal would. Aluminum has the properties of a typical metal, but it sometimes acts like a non-metallic elements. Silicon and germanium have both metallic and non-metallic properties.

Posted in Chemistry