Question

Which scientist suggested that the symbols of elements should be made of one or more letters?
A.Dalton
B.Rutherford
C.Lavoisier
D.Berzelius

Answer 1

Hint: A Swedish scientist was the one who suggested that the symbols of elements should have one or more letters. Out of the above options , check which one is Swedish.

Complete step by step answer:
J. J. Berzelius was the scientist who suggested that the symbols of elements should be made of one or more letters. Before this, the symbols used to denote chemical elements were absurd. He is responsible for the development of a rational system of atomic symbols. When he was working to prove and confirm Dalton’s atomic theory, he came to a conclusion that the existing system of that time was an obstruction to his work. In establishing the atomic symbols , he stated that ”it is easier to write an abbreviated form of a name rather than draw a figure which has no resemblance to the name”. Berzelius opted to use the first letter of the Latin name of the chemical compound instead of drawing circles or arrows. He thus symbolized Carbon as $C$ and Oxygen as $O$ . If two letters had the same first letter then the first two letters were to be used as the symbols.
Then he extended his development of symbols to compounds and also added subscripts to the element symbols to represent their number of atoms in one molecule of that compound. For example ${H_2}O$ water , was denoted as this to show that in one molecule of water, it had two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen.

So, the correct answer is Option D.

Note:
A tip to remember these would be to focus on the scientist description given in the chapters of the textbooks. Though Berzelius suggested this much earlier it was adopted at a later stage and has become an internationally accepted way of symbolizing elements.