Question

What is a symbol? What information does it convey?

Answer 1

Hint: Symbol of an element is basically a short form representation of the element having a big name. When initially elements were discovered, they also had to put all the elements in a periodic table and the names had to be concise and the short form completely represented the element.

Complete answer:
The periodic table is basically a table used to define and accommodate all the elements existing in this world, naturally or unnaturally. This periodic table is further divided into periods and groups. There are 7 periods and 18 groups. Period is the horizontal row on the periodic table. As we go along the group starting from the first period, we observe that the number of electrons increases. Therefore, from the left to write the number of electrons. Egg hydrogen has more electrons from helium, hydrogen has one and helium has two.
Now in these groups and periods what we have are elements and the elements' short name for elements are called symbols. Eg. neon is represented by $^{20}N{e_{10}}$
Now these symbols in the periodic table don’t only have the short form but the symbol also has the number of protons that is equal to the number of electrons and the mass number that is the number of neutrons and protons.
What these symbols convey are:
The symbol represents a specific element.
It only and only represents one atom of an element.
It basically represents the number of atoms present in one gram of its atom.
It also tells us the amount of heaviness as compared to one atomic mass unit.
Symbol is a short form of a specific element.

Note:
The atomic number is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus and that is equal to the electrons because the whole compound or element has to be zero in charge. While the mass number is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons each being one atomic mass unit. Nucleus is what provides mass to an element.