Chemical Symbols and Formulae

An element is a substance made of only one type of atom.

Each element is represented by a symbol.

The symbol comes from the first letter or letters of its name. Sometimes, the symbol comes from
its Latin or Greek name, for example the symbol for sodium is Na from the Latin ‘natrium’.

symbol

The first letter of the symbol is always capitalised. Any following letters are lower case.
The symbols for the elements are arranged on the periodic table.

1.Write down the symbol for the following elements. Use a periodic table to help.

a. magnesium M

b. iron Fe

c. phosphorous P

d. antimony Sb

A compound is a substance made when two or more elements are chemically bonded together.

The symbols of each element are put together to give the chemical formula of a compound.

HCl is the formula of hydrochloric acid. It is made from two elements.

The symbol H tells us that one element is hydrogen.
The symbol Cl tells us that the second element is chlorine. Notice that the second letter is lower
case.

2. Write down the number of elements in each of the chemical formulae below.

a. FeS b. KOH c. NaCl d. HClO

2 3 3 4

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 Chemical Symbols and Formulae

Sometimes an element symbol is followed by a subscript number. This tells us that there is more
than one atom of the element immediately before the number.

CO2
The subscript 2 in this formula tells us that there are 2 oxygen atoms in a molecule of carbon
dioxide. There is no subscript number after the C, so we know there is only 1 atom of carbon.

This means there are 3 atoms in one molecule of carbon dioxide.

3. Complete the table to show the number of elements and number of atoms in each compound.

Compound Formula Number of Elements Number of Atoms

carbon dioxide CO2 2 3

ozone O3 1 3

zinc sulfide ZnS 2 2

barium iodide BaI2 2 3

sodium nitride Na3N 2 4

butane C4H10 2 14

nickel sulfate NiSO4 3 6

lithium hydroxide LiOH 3 3

silver carbonate Ag2CO3 3 6

potassium nitrite KNO2 3 4

glucose C6H12O6 3 24

boric acid H3BO3 3 7

ammonium nitrite NH4NO2 4 8

bromothymol blue C27H28Br2O5S 5 63

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