Periodic Table: Element Symbols - Video Tutorials & Practice Problems

Periodic Table: Symbols Concept

Now before we talk about the periodic table, the elements and their symbols, let's go over a little bit of history. We're going to stay here at the end of the 18th century, it was antoine, Lucas or who compiled a list of 23 elements and their symbols known at the time. And in 1869 it was mentally who organized them by by their recurring or periodic chemical properties. He used the term periodic law to justify the way he organized the elements. Now, how does this connect to the periodic table? Well, the periodic table here has all of these elements with their symbols. And we're going to see the periodic table itself can be seen as a grid of elemental symbols that is organized in terms of increasing atomic number. Remember your atomic number uses the variable Z. And it basically tells us the number of protons for any particular element. So here hydrogen has the lowest atomic number. And as we start moving, we'll see that the atomic number is increasing, so 123, so on and so forth. By organizing the periodic table. In terms of increasing atomic number, elements are allowed to fall within certain columns or groups when they're in the same group, they're gonna share similar chemical properties. This was the genius of mentally by organizing it in terms of increasing atomic number. He could predict That in this slot an element would be found eventually. So although there were about 23 elements at the time when they started organizing this by organizing in the way that they did, they could predict that other elements would be found over time. Now the element symbol itself is just the abbreviated form of an element. Now, most elements it's based on the first letters of their names, hydrogen starts with an H. So it's element symbol as an H. lithium starts with ally. So its element symbol as ally. But there are 11 elements on the periodic table which aren't based on the first level letters of their name, but actually based on their Latin names. Now the Latin names are not as important, but it's it's good to know that certain names and certain symbols don't really match up too well. That's because The symbol is based on the old Latin name, that's been replaced over time with this new modern one. So those elements include sodium which is N. A potassium which is K. Iron, which is F. E. Tungsten, which is W copper, which is C. U. Silver, which is a G. Gold which is a U. Mercury, which is H. G. 10 which is s. n. Um lead, which is PB and then finally antimony which is SB The rest of the elements. For the most part, we can see that the name comes from the first letter or first few letters of the name. But these 11 special 11 ones, their symbol comes from the old Latin name that has been replaced over time. So just remember the periodic table can be credited from Levasseur Mendeleev. Organ organizational wise. Mendeleev had a big part in playing when organizing the periodic table and it's organized in terms of increasing atomic number. So that groups that have similar chemical properties. Um well, elements that fall in certain groups have similar chemical properties. So take this to heart when you're learning about each of these elements. Now we're consult with your professor because normally they want you to memorize a set number of elements with their symbols. Um, so I would go back and talk to your professors and find out how many of these elements you do need to know from memory.

Periodic Table: Symbols Example 1

So here in this example question it says name the halogen with the smallest atomic number. So remember if you are a halogen, then you reside in group seven a. Or what we call group 17. So if we come up here, we're gonna say group seven A. Or group 17. Is this group right here? And which choices do we have to look at? We have flooring, we have chlorine, bromine and iodine. So those are our religions, sc is over here, so that's out. So the one with the smallest atomic number. If we look, we have 9 17 35 53 flooring would be the answer. It has the smallest atomic number of just nine. So here we're gonna say that A would have to be our correct answer.

Based on the number of protons each element has, which would you expect to be chemically similar?

• A. Z = 7 and Z = 8
• B. Z = 22 and Z = 31
• C. Z = 3 and Z = 11
• D. Z = 32 and Z = 33