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A chemical symbol is an abbreviation or short representation of the name of a chemical element. Natural elements all have symbols of one or two letters; some man-made elements have temporary symbols of three letters.Chemical symbols are listed in the periodic table and are used as shorthand and in chemical equations, e.g.,
- .
Because chemical symbols are often derived from the Latin or Greek name of the element, they may not bear much similar to the common English name, e.g., Na for sodium (Latin natrium) and Au for gold (Latin aurum).
In China, each chemical element is assigned an ideograph as its symbol; most of them have been explicitly created for this purpose (see Chinese characters for chemical elements).
Chemical symbols may also be changed to show if one particular isotope of an atom that is specified, as well as to show other attributes such as ionization and oxidation state of a chemical compund.
For complete listings of the chemical elements and their symbols, see:
- List of elements by symbolSym Name No Origin of Symbol Ac actinium89 Ag silver47( Latin Argentum Al aluminium13 Am americium95 Ar argon18 As arsenic33 At astatine85 Au gold79(Latin Aurum B boron5 Ba barium56 Be beryllium4 Bh bohrium107 Bi bismuth83 Bk berkelium97 Br bromine35 C ca
- List of elements by nameThis is a list of the chemical elements, sorted by name. Name Sym No. A actiniumAc89 aluminiumAl13 americiumAm95 antimonySb51 argonAr18 arsenicAs33 astatineAt85 B bariumBa56 berkeliumBk97 berylliumBe4 bismuthBi83 bohriumBh107 boronB5 bromineBr35 C cadmium
- List of elements by number
- Periodic table of the elements
ChemistryChemistry is the science of matter and its interactions with energy (see physics, biology). Because of the diversity of matter (which is mostly atomic), Chemists are often engaged in the pursuit of studying how atoms interact to form molecules, and how mo
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