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Topic: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS  (Read 8796 times)

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Offline prince umair

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the elements of Actinide series like

Uranium from Uranus
Plutonium from Pluto
Neptunium from Neptune

are named so? what is the reason behind naming these? however the chemical composition of these planets is not the elements that are in the actinide series....

what is the reason?

Offline 408

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2010, 07:09:10 AM »
Gotta name an element after something, and people ran out of creativity to make totally new names, and naming after countries fell out of favour. 

Offline prince umair

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2010, 08:23:55 AM »
Does it looks a satisfactory answer....i dont think so....

Give me the reference from where u have studied that? ill remain thankful


Offline prince umair

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #4 on: November 12, 2010, 09:59:06 AM »
dear,

paste the section of interest from the wikipedia pages....i havnt found..

Offline 408

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #5 on: November 12, 2010, 04:24:08 PM »
Easy question:  Why did Marie Curie name Francium as such?






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A: To honour her home country of France


Extend this to other elements:  The discoverer named them! Because they wanted to!


However now that element discovery take dozens of people and big machines using taxpayer money, element naming is up to committees that seem to name them after famous scientists. 

Offline Fluorine

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2010, 07:23:22 AM »
I enjoy etymology (in general) of the elements so I learned a bit as well as confirmed what I've assumed.

Uranium from Uranus
Plutonium from Pluto
Neptunium from Neptune

what is the reason?

Uranium
"Word History: Some chemical elements, such as ytterbium and berkelium, derive their names from the places they were discovered, but the element uranium owes its name to an earlier scientific discovery, that of the planet Uranus. [...] The name of this new planet Uranus was then used in the name of a new chemical element discovered eight years later by M.H. Klaproth. Klaproth, a German scientist, gave it the Latin name uranium in honor of the discovery of Uranus. Uranium passed into English shortly thereafter, being first recorded in the third edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in 1797."1
"named 1789 in Mod.L. by its discoverer, Ger. chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817), for the recently found planet Uranus"2

Source 1: TheFreeDictionary: Uranium
Source 2: Etymonline: Uranium

Neptunium
"After the planet Neptune (from the fact that it follows uranium in the periodic table)."1
"The first element following Uranium is named after the first planet after Uranus: Neptune."2

Source 1: TheFreeDictionary: Neptunium
Source 2: Neptunium

Plutonium
"After the dwarf planet Pluto (from the fact that it follows neptunium in the periodic table)."1
"The second element following Uranium is named after the second planet after Uranus: Pluto"2
"the element named on suggestion of Seaborg and Wahl because it follows neptunium in the periodic table as Pluto follows Neptune in the Solar System."3

Source 1: TheFreeDictionary: Plutonium
Source 2: Plutonium
Source 3: Etymonline: Plutonium
I'm still learning - always check my work/answer.

"curse Pierre Jules César Janssen!"

Offline ardbeg

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #7 on: November 14, 2010, 11:38:48 PM »
dear,

paste the section of interest from the wikipedia pages....i havnt found..

what did your last slave die of?

Offline enahs

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2010, 03:59:30 PM »
Marie Currie did not discover Francium. She and her husband discovered Polonium, named after her native country Poland. They also discovered Radium.

Offline 408

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2010, 06:38:31 AM »
Thanks for the correction :)

Offline prince umair

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Re: Why the elements of actinide series are named analogous to PLANETS
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2010, 12:14:17 PM »
thanks FLOURINE....

Thanks to all others...

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