Iron, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Gold and Fluorine (the stuff in tooth paste) have in common?
All of the above things are elements.
An element is a substance, which can’t be broken into other substances.
By this I mean, if we look at a single molecule in gold, fluorine or oxygen, all we would see would be gold, fluorine or oxygen molecules (respectively).
Iron is only made up of iron atoms.
You may have seen the above picture before. This is the periodic table. It lists all the elements we have found and made.
Each element has its own Chemical symbol. This is a one or two letter code for the elements.
Scientists all over the world use the same chemical symbols to identify elements.
When writing a chemical symbol it is important to write the first letter as a upper case and (if there is a second) the second as a lower case.
Questions
1. Define the term element
2. Write the chemical symbol for the following elements
