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These symbols are used so that it could be understood by the whole world. The name of the chemicals change across the world, but the symbol doesn't.

If you look in details you will find that most of the chemicals with strange names actually was discovered in non-english speaking language, the letters are often the first letter(s) of the name of the symbol; not because they can't all be the first two letters or most obvious letters (because there is too many to do that). Here are a few example:

  • Fe - Iron, from latin 'ferrous'
  • Ag - Silver, from latin 'argentum'
  • Hg - Mercury, from latin 'hydragyrum'

  • Sn - Tin, from latin 'stannum'

  • Au - Gold, from latin 'aurum'

Also, they don't use chemical just to make it easier to write down, for example, it's easier to say and write 'glucose' than C6H12O6,just look at what is longer and you will see that what people say is not true.

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∙ 16y ago
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