Why do we give names to all the elements?
No matter what we call them, it doesn't change the experiments.
Ah, there's so much more behind each label Here's the story of the names on the periodic
table
The first name, hydrogen, means it likes to form water
While the last one sounds like a spell from Harry Potter
Silicon is named for a rock in the ground And many more are called for where they are
found
Sulfur's just sulfur, as far back as we know And calx and borax date from quite a while
ago
This one's from a red stone, and this one's yellow
And one's from a rock named for this Russian fellow
Chromium's compounds have colorful sheens Bromine stinks, and chlorine wafts green
Bismuth starts white, until its colors come out
Zinc has pointy crystals, and barium's stout
Indium's not for India as you may have learned It's just one of four color spectra this bunch
makes when they burn
They tasted aluminum and thought it was bitter Rhodium's rose, Iodine's violet and zirconium
a gold-like glitter
Speaking of gold, the name's different from the symbol slapped on
Our mouths speak "shining yellow" while we abbreviate "shining dawn"
Many other names don't match abbreviations And those can be confusing situations
Potash, or kalium, comes from burnt wood While nater, or soda, made headaches feel
good
For a few more, one language can't settle Like, Ferrum is latin, but iron's a "holy
metal"
Tungsten in America beat Wolfram from across the pond
But niobium not columbium that compromise spawned
Many names are the products of reactions Bringing forth acid, or nitre, or charcoal
transactions
They found osmium thanks to its distinctive smell
And fluorine in fluorspar which makes metals flow well
Antimony means dead monk OR never alone And Lithium's the first alkali that was found
in a stone
Splitting this mineral gave elements two, praseodymium the green twin and neodymium
the new
There's a group of idle gases that don't react One was named by a child, little-known fact.
Dysprosium's not the only one playing hard to get
For a long time ores held Lanthanum's secret
Astatine's unstable and will quickly decay Like these radioactives, all three meaning
"ray"
Technetium's so rare we found it by making it
And these are so new that they haven't even been named yet
The Greeks thought molybdenum might have been lead,
While the Spaniard's "little silver" was Platinum instead
Cadmium's in calamine, for Cadmus the prince And lots more from mythology have been added
since
There's goblins and devils and even mighty Thor
Who walked on Iris' rainbow to Asgard's door
There's Vanadis, Tantalus, Ceres, and the Titans
The giver of fire, and the one whose light brightens
Speaking of light we found Helium in the sun, And Mercury, that liquid silver, is a planetary
one
There's an asteroid, Earth, and even the moon Uranus, pluto and also neptune
There's a crazy story behind 93, it was named for Italy by Enrico Fermi
But his science was wrong, and when his Nobel came along, he snuck off to the States to
be free.
A river, a state, a college, a lab called Livermore
And one mine in Sweden gave us names for four
Cyprus and Magnesia, places so old Russia and Scandinavia, places so cold
We could draw a map of Europe with the places that remain
But is Gallium for France?
Or the discoverer's name?
The rest are for people, but those are pretty clear.
They found half this stuff, they deserve to be here!
Thanks for watching, and . . . stay curious.
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