Question

What is the abbreviation for sodium?

Answer 1

Hint: Abbreviations for elements are used for the ease in their representation. The first letter or the first two letters of any element is the abbreviated form of any element. Sodium is also called ‘natrium’ in the Latin language. Sodium is in the group 1 of the periodic table.

Complete answer:
Sodium is an alkali metal of the group 1 of the periodic table. As we know, abbreviations or symbols are used to denote the elements in the periodic table. These symbols are either derived from the first letter of the element or first two letters of the element.
For sodium, the word is derived from ‘soda’. Sodium was discovered in 1807 by Sir Humphrey Davy. Its symbol is derived from a Latin word called ‘Natrium’. Therefore the abbreviation used for sodium is the first two letters of natrium that is ‘Na’.
Hence, Na is the abbreviation for sodium.

Additional information:
Sodium is a highly reactive metal with atomic number 11 and has 1 electron in its valence shell. This makes it a highly reactive metal that can even react with water. It is due to this reason sodium is not kept as it is, but kept dipped in kerosene.

Note:
Sodium is given the symbol Na and not N from natrium as N would resemble with the abbreviation of nitrogen, which is N. Some other elements with their abbreviation in their chemical name are, iron called ferrous as Fe, lead has a name of plumbum and the sign Pb, while silver has a name argentums so a symbol, Ag.