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Jul. 26th, 2007

01:04 pm - Element contest

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I could use a little impetus to get back into the swing of drawing things, so here's a little contest. This is a trivia question that [info]circuit_four came up with and posted in a friendslocked entry. Try to answer from memory. No cheating and looking anything up or listening to Tom Lehrer's "The Elements"! Of course, if you've already got "The Elements" memorized, that doesn't count as cheating.


There are nine elements in the Periodic Table whose names have no letters in common with their symbols. What are they?

Bonus question: There are two elements whose symbols are not derived from their English names, but which nevertheless each share one letter with their symbols. What are they?


The first person to answer both questions correctly will get a free colored drawing of their subject matter of choice. The first person besides him/her to answer the main question correctly will get a free pencil sketch of their subject matter of choice.

Comments arewere screened. (Now that prizes have been awarded, no point screening comments anymore.

Update: That was quick! [info]hartree and [info]linnaeus are our two lucky winners.

The hardest one to remember seems to be antimony (Sb). Ooo, that wascawwy antimony!

Current Mood: [mood icon] creative
Current Music: Tom Lehrer - The Elements
(Leave a comment)

Comments:

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From:[info]linnaeus
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:27 pm (UTC)
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Lead (Pb), Tungsten (W), Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), Mercury (Hg), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), and Iron (Fe) and Antimony (Sb).

Bonus: Um... One of them is Tin (Sn), but I've got no clue on the other...
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 26th, 2007 07:09 pm (UTC)
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You win second prize! What would you like a sketch of? (Please don't make it too complicated...)
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From:[info]linnaeus
Date:July 26th, 2007 10:46 pm (UTC)
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Whee! Thanks!

How 'bout a raccoon in little oval glasses, drinking coffee?
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 27th, 2007 12:06 am (UTC)
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Can do! Just give me a couple of days or so.
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From:[info]hartree
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:39 pm (UTC)
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Uh...

Sharing 1 letter

Tin: Sn from Stannum
Copper: Cu from cuprum

The others:
Lead: Pb from plumbum
Sodium: Na from natrium
Tungsten: W from Wolfram
Antimony: Sb (I think. I'm doing this from memory)
Iron: Fe from ferrum
Gold: Au from aurum
Silver: Ag from argentum
Mercury: Hg from Hydrargentum (or something like that. mercury's weird in a lot of ways.)
Potassium: K from kalium
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 26th, 2007 07:10 pm (UTC)
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You win first prize! What would you like a color drawing of? (Please don't make it too complicated...)
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 26th, 2007 07:15 pm (UTC)
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Also, Sb is from stibium and Hg is from hydrargyrum.
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From:[info]linnaeus
Date:July 26th, 2007 08:39 pm (UTC)
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D'oh! Copper!

My hat is off to you, sir!
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From:[info]shockwave77598
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:48 pm (UTC)
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Potassium, Gold, Silver, Tungsten and Lead are five.

Gold, Silver and Lead use letters that derive from their latin roots.
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From:[info]byackley
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:48 pm (UTC)
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From memory, huh? Let's see...

Sodium (Na)
Antimony (Sb)
Tungsten (W)
Potassium (K)
Gold (Au)
Silver (Ag)
Mercury (Hg)
Lead (Pb)
Iron (Fe) (alchemical metals FTW, as the saying goes)

Bonus:
Tin (Sn)
Copper (Cu)
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From:[info]timmowarner
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:50 pm (UTC)
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Nine?!

I don't have a chance. But just in case this is the best anyone can do...

Gold, Silver, Lead... Ummmmmm... I think that's it for my knowledge of the elements without looking anything up.

I can't even get started on the second question. =o)
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From:[info]nefaria
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:50 pm (UTC)
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Oooo, I studied for a periodic table competition in high school, let's see how many I can get...

Question 1:
Au - Gold
Ag - Silver
K - Potassium
W - Tungsten
Na - Sodium
Pb - Lead
Fe - Iron

Question 2:
Cu - Copper
Sn - Tin

Argh, I couldn't figure out the ninth one. I looked it up on a periodic table and recognized Hg - Mercury by the symbol alone.
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From:[info]nefaria
Date:July 27th, 2007 12:09 am (UTC)
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Oh, uh, -1 for me for not being able to count to 9.
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From:[info]varro
Date:July 26th, 2007 06:55 pm (UTC)
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Here we go...

Question 1: Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Iron (Fe), Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), Antimony (Sb), Tungsten (W), Mercury (Hg), Lead (Pb).

Question 2: Copper (Cu - cuprum), Tin (Sn - Stannum)

Woo-Hoo! In your face, Space Coyote!

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From:[info]porsupah
Date:July 26th, 2007 07:17 pm (UTC)
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1. Gold (Au), Silver (Ag), Lead (Pb),
Sodium (Na), Tungsten (W), Potassium (K),
Iron (Fe), Mercury (Hg), Antimony (Sb)
(more if you count Sg as Unnilhexium, et al)

2. Tin (Sn), Copper (Cu)
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 26th, 2007 10:14 pm (UTC)
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Good work (although too late to win the prize)! However, I think counting Sg as Unnilhexium, et al, isn't cricket, old chap. When it was Unnilhexium, its symbol was Unh. Now it's Seaborgium, its symbol is Sg.
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From:[info]wbwolf
Date:July 26th, 2007 07:26 pm (UTC)

Have a go

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Mercury- Hg
Gold- Au
Silver- Ag
Lead- Pb
Potassium- K
Sodium -Na
---
Tungsten (Wolfram) -W
Tin- Sn

Best I could do from memory (6+2)... bah.
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 26th, 2007 10:11 pm (UTC)

Re: Have a go

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Er, was I not clear enough in the bonus question? I'm looking for two elements, each of which has a symbol not derived from its English name, but sharing one letter with its English name. Tungsten is an answer to the first question, not the second. See above for correct answers.
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From:[info]wbwolf
Date:July 26th, 2007 10:21 pm (UTC)

Re: Have a go

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Well, I didn't get all of them listed, so the point is moot. But, tungsten/wolfram is a bit tricky, since it was originally called wolfram in English (hence the symbol), and even considered an alternate name (the oxide is called wolframite [Mn•Fe]WO, for example). Naturally, it is still known as Wolfram in German. In that case, it would fit with either category.
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From:[info]penh
Date:July 26th, 2007 07:32 pm (UTC)
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I know, there are winners already, but I wanna see if I can do it. So, just off the top of my head, without checking the periodic table I keep in my wallet for just such an emergency, I'd say...

Potassium (K), Lead (Pb, plumbum), Tungsten (W), Silver (Ag, argentum), Gold (Au, aurum), Mercury (Hg), Sodium (Na, natrium), Iron (Fe, ferrum), and the already-mentioned Antimony (Sb, stabnium).

Bonus: Tin (Sn, stannun), Copper (Cu, cuprium)

Spellings of the actual name are my best guess based on vague memories.
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From:[info]nerfcoyote
Date:July 26th, 2007 08:15 pm (UTC)
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There are nine elements in the Periodic Table whose names have no letters in common with their symbols. What are they?

Gold (Au)
Silver (Ag)
Lead (Pb)
Tin (Sb? I forget if it's Sb or Sn)
Iron (Fe)
Mercury (Hg)
all I could think of off the top of my head..

Bonus question: There are two elements whose symbols are not derived from their English names, but which nevertheless each share one letter with their symbols. What are they?

Copper (Cu)
Tin? (Sn? I forget if it's Sb or Sn)

in other trivia, at one point I wanted to memorize Tom Lehrer's elements song and sing it in a Yakko Warner voice. Y'know, as a followup after memorizing Yakko's World.

[info]denimwizard inspired me to make this:
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 26th, 2007 10:10 pm (UTC)
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Good try! See [info]linnaeus and [info]hartree above for the correct answers.

Also, heh! Let's see if I can do "kinky turtle"...
K (Potassium)
In (Indium)
K (Potassium)
Y (Yttrium)

...dang, no T, no Tu. Guess not!
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From:[info]nerfcoyote
Date:July 26th, 2007 10:35 pm (UTC)
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d'oh! ah well.
I'm surprised I forgot about [info]antimony, actually.
And Sodium and Tungsten?! I should turn in my Lab Coat!
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From:[info]ipslore
Date:July 27th, 2007 05:16 am (UTC)
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I'm pretty sure there's a Yt, though. Ytterbium, maybe?
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From:[info]kinkyturtle
Date:July 27th, 2007 05:36 am (UTC)
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Nope, that's Yb.
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From:[info]thecanuckguy
Date:July 27th, 2007 02:56 am (UTC)
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Dammit, why do these contests get winners before I even read my friends' LJ for the day? Not like I'd probably have gotten more than 4 (and I even forgot about gold and silver when first reading it! D'oh!) but I would have liked to have tried by making an ass of myself! I do it so well!

As to making words out of element names, I was kind of tickled with that when I was in high school chemistry (and always chuckled when I saw Vanadiam (V, element 23) and Chromium (Cr, element 24) next to each other in the periodic table (which slightly shows my age, as there was no one then who didn't know what a VCR was).

My new thing is to make words using only the ISO 3166-2 list of country abbreviations (what ccTLDs are based on), although, by definition, the words have to be an even number of letters to work (for example Canada, Niue, and the Cook Islands spell CANUCK), I would then make a drawing of the flags of those countries hoisted together. (I could get around the even-letter restraint, as well as possibly some two-letter combinations that don't exist by using the signal flag alphabet, so to make my username, just take the above three countries, and add the flags for Guam and Y). Yes I'm a flag geek. And proud of it.
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From:[info]wolflahti
Date:July 26th, 2007 11:05 pm (UTC)
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Antimony (aka stibium) isn't hard for me to remember. For the medieval alchemists, it was representative of the wild nature of man, symbolized by the wolf. (Now how, do you figure, I would know that?)
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