Question 11: Match these scientists with the element named after them:

• Niels Bohr
• Marie Curie
• Albert Einstein
• Enrico Fermi
• Johan Gadolin
• Ernest Lawrence
• Lise Meitner
• Dimitri Mendeleev
• Alfred Nobel
• Ernst Rutherford
• Glenn Seaborg

We've all heard of Einstein, Curie, Nobel and (now) Mendeleev, but who was Lawrence and what did Gadolin do to get an element named after him. (For a slightly more intriguing search, try to find out why element 104 was originally named Hahnium, but that was dropped in favour of naming a later one after Meitner.)

Question 12: Search the periodic table to find the element or elements that are named after the following. (List the name and symbol for each.)

• Planets: Look for four real and one fictional.
• Countries: There are several - three modern, at least three ancient.
• States: one in Germany, one in the USA.

Question 13: Look through the symbols on the periodic table.

1. Why do chemists make use of symbols?
2. Suggest reasons why symbols such as Ca (Calcium), O (Oxygen), C (Carbon) or Cl (Chlorine) may have been chosen.
3. Some elements have symbols that do not seem to relate to their current names. In most cases this is because the elements have been known and in use since before there was a language called 'English'. The symbols relate the the Latin names of these elements. Make a list of these elements and their symbols. There should be eleven. You should try to learn the symbols and the names of these elements.

Question 14: Several new element have been discovered (or manufactured) recently. Imagine a discoverer wishes to name one of them Australium.

• Could it be given the symbol Au? Explain.
• Could its symbol be a? Explain.
• Suggest a symbol. 

 

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