Chemistry! How's yours? Do you still recall your periodic table? Let's see! What about the odd ones your teacher said "You just hafta memorize"?

[DrPepper12]

With rare earths in the news due to Chinas embargo to the USA, let's all review?

Those were EASY! Do you recall the correct one or two letter atomic symbols for these SPECIAL elements?

1) Sodium

2) Potassium

3) Iron

4) Copper

5) Silver

6) Tin

7) Antimony

8) Tungsten

9) Gold

10) Mercury

11) Lead

So do you remember ALL of them? NO CHEATING!! ❌

[Tarifa]

I would only remember about a third in normal circumstances. A bit more now that it's a subject my daughter has at school.

That being said, I don't see the point in memorizing things if you can always look it up. Unless you actually need it on a daily basis in a professional setting. I think education in general should teach you how to think for yourself and work towards a goal, rather than memorizing stuff and repeating it like a parrot would do. The first approach makes you smarter, the second one only gives you good grades at one particular subject in a temporary setting.

[andreasderjuengere]

I remember 2/3 of the shorts. Anyhow, we back then dealt with more complex things that rural areas perhaps would consider to be black magic.

Myself, I enjoyed organic molecules and their reactions a lot more than the mere repetition of what I could look up myself.

[andreasderjuengere]

Oh... thank you :)

[AI Opinion]

Certainly! Some atomic symbols may initially seem odd because they derive from Latin names:

1) Sodium - Na
2) Potassium - K
3) Iron - Fe
4) Copper - Cu
5) Silver - Ag
6) Tin - Sn
7) Antimony - Sb
8) Tungsten - W
9) Gold - Au
10) Mercury - Hg
11) Lead - Pb

Memorizing these can be tricky, but with practice, they become second nature!

[DryGermanGuy]

I was a major in chemistry and the periodic table cutout was allowed in every test.

[blackeagle007]

Never took chem. Was there math involved?

[DryGermanGuy]

Yeah, but the math parts were easy enough. The chemical formulas and calculations did you in.

[DrPepper12]

I still remember balancing those valence shells, moles, avagadros number...

[abc3643]

Let's see. All of this is from memory...

Sodium = Na (Natrium was Latin name, I believe)
Potassium = K (Kalium)
Iron = Fe (Ferrum?)
Copper = Cu (Cuprium)
Silver = Ag (Argentum)
Tin = Sn (?)
Antimony = Sb
Tungsten = W (Wolfram?)
Gold = Au (Aurum?)
Mercury = Hg (?)
Lead = Pb (Plumbum; it's where the word plumbing comes from)

[msmissydc]

We never had to learn them by heart.
We always had a periodic table at hand even in tests.
The few things we were encorraged to learn where, That H is 1, O is 8 and C is 6, because these are much more used than anything else when it comes to everyday chemistry.

[purplepoppy]

I didn't know antimony. Things like gold, lead, silver aren't too difficult here because we call them AUr PlwB and arian which is our version of the french ArGent.

I remember a lot of the symbols but not the atomic weights

[Maybe_Maybe_not]

I skipped a lot of chemistry classes at HS, as soon as I discovered that not bringing my lab coat/smock would get me banned temporarily. Couldn't stand this teacher 😬

[exitseven]

Sodium- NA, Potassium -K, Iron-FE , Copper CU. Silver-AG, Tin-?, Antimony-?, Tungsten- WF, -Gold-AU, Mercury- HG, -Lead- PB

[RavVid]

Remembered all excepting Antimony and Tungsten right out of the gate.

[exitseven]

Tungsten was know as Wolfram that is how I remember it.

[RavVid]

@exitseven A forebear had a wolfram mine so I could of got that but I marked myself strictly and didn't allow guesses.. I had a moment thought over mercury but it came back, so that was fair to count.

Good quiz.

[exitseven]

it was a good quiz. There used to be a comic book called Metal Men and they were robots made up of different metals. Gold, Iron. Lead, Platinum, Tin and Mercury. They had the elemental symbol on their foreheads. I remember that so I got a lot of them.

[RavVid]

@exitseven That seems vaguely familiar, might have seen as a child.

[exitseven]

yes, it was the 70s/

[RavVid]

@exitseven OK. I was given a lot of old comics. Maybe I did. I wanted to make explosives as a child so I was pretty into chemistry.

[exitseven]

@RavVid I had pretty extensive comic book collection. I had the first X-Men and Daredevil and the issue of the Avengers when they found Captain America floating round in the ocean. I had the series of the Fantastic Four with Galactus and the introduction of the Silver Surfer.
Also the first appearance of the Black Panther. I had the issue where the Golden Age Flash meets the Silver Age Flash.
I had a lot of comics. When I went away to college my mother threw than all out.
I would have been rich now, so thanks mom.

[Dongie]

I don't know those but 1 is helium 2 is hydrogen 6 is carbon that's it for me except 237 plutonium or uranium. 🤓

[NathanDavis]

I still see it most days... lol