Answer to Question #38119 in Organic Chemistry for aakash

Question

how do symbols help in identifying elements

Answer 1

Each element is assigned to a chemical symbol. This symbol usually originates from its name or its Latin name. For example, silicon has a chemical symbol "Si". A chemical symbol refers to just a single element. Each element's symbol is composed of a capital letter followed by one or two lowercase letters. Looking at the chemical formula and identifying each element's symbol you can determine elements in chemical compounds. For example, the compound CO2 has two elements, carbon and oxygen. Another example, glucose, has the formula C6H12O6, and has three elements, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen.