Question

The symbol of silver is S.
A. True
B. False

Answer 1

Hint:Symbol is used to represent an atom. It is not convenient to write the complete name of an atom, so symbols are used to denote an atom. The atomic number of silver is $47$. In Latin silver is known as argentum.

Complete answer:
The atomic representation is as follows:
\[_{\text{Z}}^{\text{A}}{\text{X}}\]

\[{\text{X}}\] is the symbol of the atom.
\[{\text{Z}}\] is the atomic number of proton number.
\[{\text{A}}\] is the atomic mass.

A single capital letter that is the initial letter of the atomic name is used to represent the atom.
An atomic representation can have two letters if the first letter already represents some other atom. In that case, the first two letters are used to represent that atom. The second letter will be written as a small letter.

The atomic number of the sulphur is $16$. Sulphur came before silver, so the representation of sulphur was given first. Sulphur's name starts from the alphabet S so, S is the symbol of sulphur. So, silver can be represented as S. The silver is represented as Ag.So, the statement, the symbol of silver is S is not correct.

Additional information: In atomic representation, the atomic number is the number of protons present in the nucleus of an atom. Every atom has a unique atomic number. Atomic mass is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons that are present in the nucleus.

Therefore the correct answer is option (B) false.

Note:In Latin the word argentum’ is used for silver. So, the atomic representation of silver is Ag. A capital letter or a capital with a small letter represents the atom and is known as an atomic symbol. The molecule representation includes the letter that represents the atomic symbol of the atoms present in that molecule. An atomic symbol can have a single capital letter but cannot have a single small letter.