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  • Why do we give names to all the elements? No matter what we call them, it doesn't change

  • the experiments.

  • Ah, there's so much more behind each label Here's the story of the names on the periodic

  • table

  • The first name, hydrogen, means it likes to form water

  • While the last one sounds like a spell from Harry Potter

  • Silicon is named for a rock in the ground And many more are called for where they are

  • found

  • Sulfur's just sulfur, as far back as we know And calx and borax date from quite a while

  • ago

  • This one's from a red stone, and this one's yellow

  • And one's from a rock named for this Russian fellow

  • Chromium's compounds have colorful sheens Bromine stinks, and chlorine wafts green

  • Bismuth starts white, until its colors come out

  • Zinc has pointy crystals, and barium's stout

  • Indium's not for India as you may have learned It's just one of four color spectra this bunch

  • makes when they burn

  • They tasted aluminum and thought it was bitter Rhodium's rose, Iodine's violet and zirconium

  • a gold-like glitter

  • Speaking of gold, the name's different from the symbol slapped on

  • Our mouths speak "shining yellow" while we abbreviate "shining dawn"

  • Many other names don't match abbreviations And those can be confusing situations

  • Potash, or kalium, comes from burnt wood While nater, or soda, made headaches feel

  • good

  • For a few more, one language can't settle Like, Ferrum is latin, but iron's a "holy

  • metal"

  • Tungsten in America beat Wolfram from across the pond

  • But niobium not columbium that compromise spawned

  • Many names are the products of reactions Bringing forth acid, or nitre, or charcoal

  • transactions

  • They found osmium thanks to its distinctive smell

  • And fluorine in fluorspar which makes metals flow well

  • Antimony means dead monk OR never alone And Lithium's the first alkali that was found

  • in a stone

  • Splitting this mineral gave elements two, praseodymium the green twin and neodymium

  • the new

  • There's a group of idle gases that don't react One was named by a child, little-known fact.

  • Dysprosium's not the only one playing hard to get

  • For a long time ores held Lanthanum's secret

  • Astatine's unstable and will quickly decay Like these radioactives, all three meaning

  • "ray"

  • Technetium's so rare we found it by making it

  • And these are so new that they haven't even been named yet

  • The Greeks thought molybdenum might have been lead,

  • While the Spaniard's "little silver" was Platinum instead

  • Cadmium's in calamine, for Cadmus the prince And lots more from mythology have been added

  • since

  • There's goblins and devils and even mighty Thor

  • Who walked on Iris' rainbow to Asgard's door

  • There's Vanadis, Tantalus, Ceres, and the Titans

  • The giver of fire, and the one whose light brightens

  • Speaking of light we found Helium in the sun, And Mercury, that liquid silver, is a planetary

  • one

  • There's an asteroid, Earth, and even the moon Uranus, pluto and also neptune

  • There's a crazy story behind 93, it was named for Italy by Enrico Fermi

  • But his science was wrong, and when his Nobel came along, he snuck off to the States to

  • be free.

  • A river, a state, a college, a lab called Livermore

  • And one mine in Sweden gave us names for four

  • Cyprus and Magnesia, places so old Russia and Scandinavia, places so cold

  • We could draw a map of Europe with the places that remain

  • But is Gallium for France? Or the discoverer's name?

  • The rest are for people, but those are pretty clear.

  • They found half this stuff, they deserve to be here!

  • Thanks for watching, and . . . stay curious. I'm officially out of rhymes, so subscribe

  • to see more of us.

Why do we give names to all the elements? No matter what we call them, it doesn't change

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