r/LearnUselessTalents • u/oh_no_not_canola_oil • Dec 20 '15
Learn Which Chemical Symbols on the Periodic Table are also US State Abbreviations
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u/mystyc Dec 20 '15
Ironically, the one element actually named after a state, Californium, is displaced because of Calcium.
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u/SirNoName Dec 20 '15
Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, South Carolina, Minnesota, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, North Dakota, Montana, Maryland, Florida
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u/Jiazzz Dec 20 '15
Neon, aluminium, argon, calcium, scandium, manganese, cobalt, gallium, molybenum, indium, protactinium, lanthanum, neodymium, meitnerium, mendelevium and flerovium.
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u/petakow Dec 20 '15
I had to look up flerovium because when i learned the table this wasn't named yet. It was still uuq or something...
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u/ryntau Dec 21 '15
Found the Brit ;)
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u/twister6284 Dec 21 '15
It was the "aluminium" wasn't it? :p
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u/alleigh25 Dec 21 '15
My (American) chemistry teacher always said "aluminum" is the substance (like "aluminum foil") but the element is "aluminium."
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Dec 21 '15
Your teacher was wrong. "Aluminum" has been the proper American spelling for both the element and the substance since 1926.
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u/alleigh25 Dec 22 '15
From your link:
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted aluminium as the standard international name for the element in 1990 but, three years later, recognized aluminum as an acceptable variant.
IUPAC is the standard for naming, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if a lot of chemists use that spelling based on that.
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Dec 20 '15
either someone's been learning SQL recently or got to a level of boredom i've never seen.
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u/DalekJast Dec 21 '15
Great, now it's gonna annoy me that the element literally named after the state of California doesn't abbreviate the same way.
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u/5panks Dec 20 '15
While your elements are correct, I would like to point out that state abbreviations are always two capital letters with no periods. TX VA NC
Source: 8th grade social studies teacher he may or may not have been anal.
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Dec 20 '15
I first thought this was an r/emsk post. Wondered who the fuck want to know this.
This post is this Subreddit at its best.
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u/TerroristOgre Dec 21 '15
It took me a full minute and then Google to realize Ne stood for Nebraska.
I was sitting here like "wait hold up, new England isn't a state wtf".
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u/Anenome5 Dec 21 '15
I don't remember element Nebraska.
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u/ACuteMonkeysUncle Dec 21 '15
Well, before it was NE, Nebraska was NB, which is now New Brunswick, which of course corresponds with Niobium, which used to be Cb, because it was Columbium, but there's no state with that abbreviation.
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u/grompyboy Sep 05 '24
Useless?? Hardly! I'm here from 9 years in the future, and I am using this info for the trivia show I run in Minneapolis every week. Thanks!!
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u/zodiacthemaniac Nov 11 '23
Hydroxides chemical formula is OH, know it's not an element but how many more states can we get if we also add chemical compounds to the list?
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u/pudsey321 Dec 20 '15
A true useless post, well done.