why is the symbol for carbon is c, k for potassium and cl for chlorine
Answers
Answer:
Why is the chemical symbol for chlorine Cl, but the symbol for fluorine is F? (Instead of Fl)
When chemists started to attribute symbols to elements, carbon was considered before chlorine. The attributed symbols to elements roughly followed their discovery. Carbon was named by Lavoisier in the late 18th century and attributed the symbol C. Chlorine was discovered by Humphry Davy in the early 19th century and was named after the Greek word ‘chloros’ which meant that it had to be differentiated from carbon with the addition of either h or l after the upper case C. We know which lower case letter won!
When attributing symbols to elements the general rule was using the first letter of the newly named element and, if that already existed for a previously discovered element, using the second or third letter in lower case, following the first letter used in upper case. Fluorine was lucky in being attributed the single letter F simply because no other element had claimed it.
The naming of the early elements was strongly linked with the languages of Latin, Greek, German and, in more recent years, with the name of the discoverer which could and probably did raise issues of omission of names of co-workers.
Answer:
Most chemical elements are represented symbolically by two letters, generally the first two in their name. In some cases, the first letter together with some other letter from their name was used, particularly when their first two letters had already been allocated to another element. A very few elements have symbols which appear to have no relationship with their names. In those cases, the origin of the symbol used is given.