The Periodic Table: Periodic Table
Slide 26 of 37
Elemental symbol and formula
The entry for every element contains a symbol and two numbers.
Symbol: One- or two-letter representation for an element.
–For instance, the symbol for element hydrogen is the letter “H.”
–Oxygen, O, and sodium, Na, not S.
–S is the symbol for Sulfur.
–Symbol for nitrogen is N, but for potassium it’s K, not P.
–P is the symbol for Phosphorus.
The two numbers are atomic number and relative atomic mass.
Atomic number represents the number of protons in the nucleus.
Relative atomic mass representative how heavy the atom is relative to the mass of hydrogen atom.