Question

Q2.Why is the symbol S for sulphur, but Na
for sodium and Si for silicon? Q3.If the symbol for Cobalt, Co, were written
as CO, what would be wrong with it?​

Answer 1

Answer:

While naming an element first letter of the element is taken and written in capitals (e.g. for sulphur, we use the symbol S). In case if the letter is already adopted. We use a symbol derived from latin word of the element name (e.g. for sodium/Natrium, we use the symbol Na). In some cases, we use the initial letter in capital together with a small letter from its name (e.g. for silicon, we use the symbol Si).

Answer 2

Answer:

1) The symbols for the elements are derived from their Latin and Greek synonyms to avoid confusion due to English words. For Sodium the symbol is Na derived from Natrium, because the symbol S was already taken for Sulphur so Si is the symbol for Silicon.

2) The wrong thing in writing cobalt as CO is that we can't write o as O because O represent Oxygen and symbols representing an element with two letters have first one as capital and next one should be in small letter.

Explanation:

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