Question

The symbol of fluorine is:
a.) F
b.) Fl
c.) Fr
d.) P

Answer 1

Hint: To answer this question, we must first understand how the symbols for individual elements are assigned. Fluorine is a halogen present in group 17 of the modern periodic table.

Complete step by step answer:
So far we have learned that a chemical symbol is a short-hand way to represent an element. Each element on the periodic table is assigned a unique chemical symbol to prevent confusion. Each element is represented by a chemical symbol consisting of letters now. But when there were only a few elements known, early chemists used to utilize icons to refer to them.
All of the 118 elements on the modern periodic table have chemical symbols represented by the first or the first two letters of the name of the element. If the chemical symbol has two letters the first letter is always in uppercase and the second letter is written in lowercase. For chemical symbols that consist of one letter, that letter is always in uppercase. For example, C represents carbon, Ca for calcium, O for oxygen.
There are some other elements whose symbols are derived from their Latin names. For example the symbol for gold is Au which comes from its Latin name Aurum.
Generally, the first element starting with a particular alphabet is assigned that alphabet as the symbol and the next one is assigned the first two letters of its name. For example the symbol for Carbon is C and that of Cobalt is Co
Similarly, fluorine with atomic number 9 is assigned F as its symbol.
Hence, the correct answer is Option (A) F.

Note: Let us now look at the other options given in question and find out their corresponding element. Fl is the symbol for Flerovium with atomic number 114 while Fr is the symbol for Francium. P is the symbol of phosphorus.