Question

What is meant by the symbol of an element? Explain with examples.

Answer 1

Hint: To answer this question, you must recall the chemical symbols and formulae used to represent various elements and compounds. Each element is depicted by a symbol uniquely assigned to it.

Complete answer:
A symbol of an element is a notation consisting of generally one or two letters and is used to denote a chemical element. There is a certain way of writing the symbol of and element. The first letter should be always capitalized and the second letter (and third in some cases) is always written in lowercase. If an element has just a one letter symbol, it must always be written in uppercase.
Most of the symbols are derived from the names of the elements using the first or the first two letters from the name of the element. But to avoid the repetition of the symbols, for some elements we use the Latin names rather than their English name to represent the symbol. The newly synthesized elements are represented by three letters as they are temporarily named.
Some examples of elements and their symbols are:
Hydrogen has the symbol H, Helium has the symbol He, Sodium has the symbol Na.

Note:
Symbols are used commonly for the representation of elements in the modern periodic table since the names of elements can be long and complex to use. Chemical formulae and equations are also depicted using the chemical symbols of the constituent elements. Without symbols, the representation of all the 118 elements would be a very difficult task.