Question

What is a chemical symbol? Write the chemical symbols of the following elements: nitrogen, calcium, boron, gold, and argon

Answer 1

Chemical symbol – It is a notation of one or two letters representing a chemical element.

Element – it is made up of only one kind of atom called an element.

For example – O, C, Au, Mg, etc

• The first letter of the name of the element, usually written in capitals, is used as the symbol.

for example – C for carbon and O for oxygen, N for nitrogen, etc

• If two or more elements have their names starting with the same letter, then a two-letter symbol is used. The first letter of the name is the second letter of the symbol. the first letter is written capital and the second letter is small

for example – Mg for magnesium, Co for cobalt

• For a few elements, the symbol is taken from their Latin name

for example – the Latin name of gold is aurum and its symbol is Au

Thus, in the given option O & C is used as a symbol for oxygen and carbon respectively as it is the first letter of carbon and oxygen, Mg for magnesium and Au for gold.