SCIENCE HELP!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!! Atoms and Symbols?

Question

Where do the atoms get their symbols


e.g. Iron = FE

why is it FE?

i need to find out:

IRON
COPPER
SODIUM
POTASSIUM

thanks for you time!!!!

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron

And so on and so forth.

Answer 2

hmm, I believe its because a different country found and named it there own, and america had to keep the name due to legalizations.. so we are stuck with FE, and the actual name of this is Ferrum.

SNIPPET FROM WIKIPEDIA

History
Main article: History of ferrous metallurgy
The first iron used by mankind, far back in prehistory, came from meteors. The smelting of iron in bloomeries probably began in Anatolia or the Caucasus in the second millennium BC or the latter part of the preceding one. Cast iron was first produced in China about 550 BC, but not in Europe until the medieval period. During the medieval period, means were found in Europe of producing wrought iron from cast iron (in this context known as pig iron) using finery forges. For all these processes, charcoal was required as fuel.

Sorry man, I cant find the countries name who discovered it, Europe is a good place to look, maybe french, germans, around that region.

Answer 3

Some of the chemical symbols used in the periodic table are based on the Latin name of the element.

Answer 4

Some of the very first chemicals that were found were given Latin names because they thought Latin was more universal than English at the time. Since they had Latin names, they got Latin initials.

Answer 5

Fe = Ferrum (iron)
Cu = Cuprum (copper)
Na = Natrium (sodium)
K = kalium (potassium)

all Latin origin

Answer 6

i know iron is known as 'ferrus'. as in its 'ore'.

not sure if that anything to do with it.

Answer 7

sumtimes its it intial.....