@Louisea52 Wolfram and tungsten are the same thing, the symbol of this element is W after all. According to Wikipedia: "The word tungsten comes from the Swedish language tung sten, which directly translates to heavy stone. Its name in Swedish is volfram, however, in order to distinguish it from scheelite, which is alternatively named tungsten in Swedish." I have also never heard the name tungsten by the way, only wolfram.
afaik tungsten has "wronlgy" been used for wolfram, while originaly it was the name for schelite. But in time in (american) english it had become the official name for wolfram. Though both are still accepted (and it has allways remained wolfram in many languages)
This is bizarre, why do we accept the name Wolfram, a German name coined by Spaniards for this element, and not accept foreign language equivalents for other ones? Why not accept Waterstof(H), Koolstof(C), Stikstof(N), Zuurstof(O) etc? And why on Earth not accept Azote for Nitrogen (Lavoisier's suggestion, which is what the French use)?
Hmm. I don't understand why Radium wasn't named after The Curie's (if they discovered it) but Curium (who I don't think had anything to do with the Curie's) was named after them :/
A lot of the artificially created elements (after Plutonium) are named in honor of famous scientists. Whoever discovers/creates an element gets to choose a name, and many discoverers have chosen to honor those who came before them.
As far as I'm aware, in the scientific community, it's considered very bad form to name something you've discovered (i.e. an element) after yourself. So most people name it after their country or in honour of another famous scientist.
Never mind bad form, I don't think you're even allowed to name something after yourself. But I'm sure I read about some narcissistic guy who used his surname and said he was naming whatever it was after his brother.
They also discovered Polonium, and named it after Poland, her native country. In fact, I typed "Polonium" for this answer and the quiz filled in "Radium".
Marie and Pierre Curie were Polish-born, French naturalized physicists made famous for their research into radioactive elements and the discoveries of Polonium and Radium. Their work led directly to the X-ray and radiation treatment for cancer.
Similarly, their work did not lead to the discovery of x-rays, which had been observed for some decades before they began their work and which Roentgen investigated independent of the Curies.
If you're really interested in element names, check out this version of the periodic table - it shows the origin of the names (person, country, mythology, &c) as well as the language of origin for the name:
I didn't try it, but it should accept 'all that glisters' for 'glitters', given that that is the variant used in the Merchant of Venice and where it is usually accepted that the phrase originated.
"I need tungsten to live"
TIL
http://www.compoundchem.com/2016/06/09/element-names/
It's even free to use (for non-commercial purposes)!