Question

The symbol of calcium, carbon and copper are:
a.) Ca, C, Co
b.) Ca, C, Cu
c.) Ca, C, Cr
d.) Ca, Cr, Cu

Answer 1

Hint: The chemical symbol for an element is usually two letters long. The first letter of every chemical symbol is a capital letter and the second letter is a small letter.

Complete Solution :
- The chemical symbol is used to represent an atom or an element. The chemical symbol of an element usually consists of one or two letters from the Latin alphabet and the first letter is always capital. There are many sources from which the symbols are derived, it includes Greek name of an element or German name etc. For example: the symbol for lead is Pb and it is derived from the Latin name of lead with is plumbum, the symbol for tungsten is W and it is derived from the German name of tungsten which is Wolfram etc.
- The atomic number of calcium is 20 and the symbol of calcium is Ca. The atomic number of carbon is 6 and the symbol of carbon is C. The atomic number of copper is 29 and the symbol of copper is Cu.
In addition to the symbol of an element additional details are added to the symbol as superscripts or subscripts. It includes the atomic number, mass number or sometimes the charge on the element.
So, the correct answer is “Option B”.

Note: Sometimes a 3-letter symbol is also assigned to a new element which is a temporary symbol for the element. For example: the chemical symbol for unniloctium was Uno which was later changed to Hs after the discovery of hassium.