All practice pages/Interatomic theory

Element trivia

Where the names came from, who found what, and the odd stories behind the symbols. Read through, then see how much stuck.

Of the 118 elements, about a quarter are named after places, a handful after people, a few after gods and planets, and most of the rest after something the element does or looks like. The oldest names are older than chemistry itself; the newest were argued over for decades.