Where do our words for the chemical elements come from? The answers are certain to surprise you. In this video, discover:
🤷 Whether it’s aluminUM or aluminIUM
🥇 Why the chemical symbol for gold is Au, not Go
🧌 The secret mythical figures hiding in the periodic table
🌍 Which place has the most elements named after it (you won’t guess)
So let’s get in our element, and explore the fascinating stories behind our names for the elements.
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==CHAPTERS==
0:00 Introduction
0:42 Hydrogen, Oxygen and friends
2:40 Helium & Aluminium
4:33 Carbon, Gold, Silver, Mercury
6:55 Ytterby elements
9:35 Named after places
10:29 Mythology elements
12:47 Named for characteristics
13:46 Named after people
14:13 Confusing chemical symbols
15:07 Interrupted by dog
source
Please tell you were filming in Spandau when you were doing this segment, since that clip of the Kemps singing about gold was too… precious.
No wander science is difficult to remember
@ 9:47 IN- GALLIUM ALSO IS THE LATIN VERSION OF THE SCIENTIST LeCOCQ… THE COCK OR ROOSTER, AND AS HE NAMED IT GALLIUM, HE FOOLED THE WORLD BY NAMING AN ELEMENT AFTER HIMSELF!
The delivery and the jokes are so on point 😀
Me being polish-german, the differences between the german and the polish names for elements always confused me. And then the english one's came along xD
10:12: Selenium get its name from the moon, and Tellurium, which is just under Selenium in the Periodic Table, from the earth. And Cerium is named after Ceres.
This was such a good video! I watched it myself and then we watched it again as a family. I knew some of these but it’s so fun how you can always learn new things hiding in language. Always love seeing a new video pop up from this channel
I was missing bismuth.
But yes, I knew all this… I went a bit crazy on Chemistry in High School 😀
I always thought that ALL the abbreviations of the periodic table are derived from latin. But it seems at least the "newer" ones are often borrowed from English or just names of important scientists.
Very nice and interesting video!
Alumium would be great! More concise than the other two.
when i was in sixth grade i memorized the periodic table with the idea that it would be a good way to get girls. a bit of trial and error there
hydrogen in its ionic form is often called a proton, and cosmologists sometimes refer to the 'early universe' as consisting largely of protons, which is from the greek protos, meaning the first, or that before there was any other, kinda like god. if you look at how other elements are formed, either through fusion (like on our sun) or supernovas (when stars much larger than our sun collapse in on themselves as their fusion slows down), you see hydrogen begets not only water but all the elements on the periodic table
not only is gen a suffix, it's a prefix, generate, gentital, etc. you could say hydrogen is the gentialia, or at least the sperma, of the universe
another engaging presentation, full of observations and connections
I see Antimony listed briefly as "not alone". That sounds strange and I would love to hear that story. I had heard it was named because it was poisonous and it killed many "monks" researching alchemy. I would love a second opinion on that word origin.
Great video! I wouldn't mind a part 2 of this, where you explain the names of iron, tin, and lead, and not just their chemical symbols. Same for Arsenic and Sulfur, which you mentioned but did not actually talk about. Other elements I don't recall seeing are Phosphor, Silicon, and Calcium, which I think would all be interesting. Also why do the nobel gasses tend to end in -on instead of -um? So many questions still. Love the fact that Gold just means Yellow though
I always thought it was the Ytterby closer to where I live, at the Swedish west coast, near Göteborg (Gothenburg), but obviously more than one place can have the same name. It's really just two words put together, like we often do in Swedish, ytter + by, outside + village, something like that.
4:12 But apparently it is supposed to be Aluminium after Americans having agreed to it. https://youtu.be/0F_ztEv_v1Y
Ironically tungsten (Swedish for heavy stone) is not called that in Swedish but called Volfram instead
interesting!
I'll call oxygen sourstuff from now on.
Helium ends with "um" because the discoverers expected it to be a metal like most elements are (they didn't have a physical sample of the stuff since they discovered it by analysing sunlight). Note that all the other noble gas names end with "on".
anyone else get detention for callin out 'science is boron' haha
You missed Bromine, which is named after the greek word for "stink" because that's what it does. It seems that all the Halogens (except for Tennessine) make it into the "named for characteristics" list.
Ima call it alumium from now on… TAKING IT BACK!! WHO WIT MEH??
Fun fact: Wolfram (german for Tungsten) and variations of it are also used as first (for males) and last names in german-speaking countries.
We need some cutting-edge millennial chemists to name a new element "DeezNutsium [Dn]