The Foundations of Chemistry

fraction of the carbon in the environment occurs in living organisms. More than one

quarter of the total mass of the earth’s crust, oceans, and atmosphere is made up of

silicon, yet it has almost no biological role.

MEASUREMENTS IN CHEMISTRY

In the next section, we introduce the standards for basic units of measurement. These

standards were selected because they allow us to make precise measurements and because

they are reproducible and unchanging. The values of fundamental units are arbitrary.^1 In

1-

Mercury is the only metal that is a
liquid at room temperature.

(^1) Prior to the establishment of the National Bureau of Standards in 1901, at least 50 different distances had been
used as “1 foot” in measuring land within New York City. Thus the size of a 100-ft by 200-ft lot in New York City
depended on the generosity of the seller and did not necessarily represent the expected dimensions.
TABLE 1-2 Some Common Elements and Their Symbols
Symbol Element Symbol Element Symbol Element
Ag silver (argentum) F fluorine Ni nickel
Al aluminum Fe iron (ferrum) O oxygen
Au gold (aurum) H hydrogen P phosphorus
B boron He helium Pb lead (plumbum)
Ba barium Hg mercury (hydrargyrum) Pt platinum
Bi bismuth I iodine S sulfur
Br bromine K potassium (kalium) Sb antimony (stibium)
C carbon Kr krypton Si silicon
Ca calcium Li lithium Sn tin (stannum)
Cd cadmium Mg magnesium Sr strontium
Cl chlorine Mn manganese Ti titanium
Co cobalt N nitrogen U uranium
Cr chromium Na sodium (natrium) W tungsten (Wolfram)
Cu copper (cuprum) Ne neon Zn zinc
TABLE 1-3 Abundance of Elements in the Earth’s Crust, Oceans,
and Atmosphere
Element Symbol % by Mass Element Symbol % by Mass
oxygen O 49.5% chlorine Cl 0.19%
silicon Si 25.7 phosphorus P 0.
aluminum Al 7.5 manganese Mn 0.
iron Fe 4.7 carbon C 0.
calcium Ca 3.
99.2%
sulfur S 0.
0.7%
sodium Na 2.6 barium Ba 0.
potassium K 2.4 chromium Cr 0.
magnesium Mg 1.9 nitrogen N 0.
hydrogen H 0.87 fluorine F 0.
titanium Ti 0.58 zirconium Zr 0.
All others combined
0.1%
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The stable form of sulfur at room
temperature is a solid.