Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Greek myth found in science

In my chemistry lab today, we utilized the Periodic Table of Elements. All throughout my childhood and young adult life I have used the periodic table. However, it did not occur to me until just recently that there are aspects of greek myth found in the naming of elements which could be found on the table. For example, the symbol Fe, which in chemistry symbolizes Iron, has a deeper meaning. Ferrum means "Iron" in Latin.

Also, I found that Uranium had the same word structure as the planet  Uranus, the original sky god who was the son and spouse of Gaia, or Mother Earth. I found this to be extremely fascinating considering we recently learned about this.

Lastly, the element Ta, or Tantalum, originates from king Tantalus, one of Zeu's sons who angered the gods for attempting to serve his son Pelops as a meal. He was punished to the Underworld with eternal thirst and hunger though a river and fruit tree were just beyond his grasp.

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