Question

The formula of compound silver iodide is SI.
(A) True
(B) False

Answer 1

Hint: Silver is chemically written as ‘Ag’ and iodide as ‘I’. The silver combines with iodide giving silver iodide. The ‘S’ is the chemical symbol for the sulphur and not for silver. So, the chemical symbol written is Sulphur iodide and not silver iodide.

Complete step by step solution:
This can be confusing for anyone. In chemistry, for almost all the elements, we have chemical symbols starting with the initials of their name. For example - Lithium has chemical symbol Li while hydrogen has chemical symbol H and so on for almost all the elements.
But there are exceptions to this also. For example - the iron has chemical symbol Fe, the gold has the chemical symbol, Au. Similarly, the second coinage metal, silver has also its chemical symbol Ag.
This is after the word ‘Argentums’ which in Latin means ‘silver’.
So, the element has the chemical symbol, Ag. Anyone guessing would guess it to be S or Si etc only.
The element has a valency one. Thus, it combines with iodide giving silver iodide.
Chemically, silver iodide is written as - AgI, not SI.

So, the given statement is false.

Note: It must be noted that silver is written as Ag and gold as Au. These words have been taken from their Latin names. There are many other elements also which have a chemical symbol with other words. Further, the silver is a coinage metal. It is used to make ornaments. It is also used for plating.