Jeopardy Reruns This element's symbol HELP ME

I’m sort of reminded of the fact that the last name of a person is usually enough… but if it’s “what president”, then “Adams”, “Harrison”, “Roosevelt”, or “Bush” isn’t enough.

Of course not. That would be a tautology.

Of course. There was more than one of each.

Writing is all symbols. “Silver” is just as much a symbol for silver as “Ag” is.

I agree that this is true virtually all of the time. If the question had been something like “The United States minted their last circulating coin in this metal in 1970” or “Some people end up turning blue from drinking a solution of this metal” then Ag or silver both would have been acceptable answers.

But there are rare occasions when the two terms cannot be used interchangeably. The question I gave above was one example. And I think that the Jeopardy question was another. The way the question was worded made a distinction between the name of the element and the symbol of the element and asked for the name.

I was in the “silver” camp until your post and now I agree with you.

It will when I finish my time machine.

Not necessarily. I pointed out last time that a person might remember that Ag and Au are the symbols for gold and silver but not remember which was which. So answering Ag was a way to conceal the fact that he wasn’t sure which element was the correct answer.

True story. I was on a quiz show once and the question asked was “Who was the first President to have been impeached?” I answered Andrew Johnson. The judge insisted the correct answer was Andrew Jackson.

Now the rules for the show said the judge’s decision was final. So I can accept that Andrew Jackson was the scoring answer. But Andrew Johnson was still the correct answer.

Oh, right, I knew I was forgetting a repeated Presidential surname! There were two Johnsons, too.

You let them get away with it?!? :eek: I’d’ve slapped them with a lawsuit for much more than the prize money, which would have guaranteed a huge out-of-court settlement!

It did nothing of the sort. To ask for the English common name to the exclusion of the symbol, it would have had to actually say ‘this is the name of the element’, or include the symbol in the clue (and not be a Stupid Answers clue).

Asking for ‘this element’ makes both 100% acceptable.

Plug the answer back into the statement:

“Of the element symbols that don’t match the element’s English name, Ag’s symbol is alphabetically first.”

It is incorrect.

I suspect you’re joking. But if not, this was a quiz show run by my college television station. I think the grand prize was a pizza.

No, it isn’t incorrect. Ag’s symbol is alphabetically first.

There is no symbol for Ag. Ag IS the symbol.

if you lost in court the judge would tell you to cough it up.

Ag is silver. They refer to the same thing. Silver’s symbol is “Ag”. Ag’s symbol is “Ag”.

Jackson WAS the first censured President.

If this had occurred on Jeopardy, there would have been a retraction later. Since there was no retraction, the ruling allowing “Ag” was and is correct.

And Monocracy, I think you’re making up a rule that doesn’t exist.

Is silver’s symbol silver?