I’m sure this has come up before, as it is one of the great mysteries of the world, but, why aren’t there any j’s on teh periodic table of elements? I mean J is a freqeuntly used letter, right? I have never seen a J anywhere near the PTOE. The elements are mostly written in Latin, maybe there are no J’s in latin or someting like that.
In fact, there aren’t any J’s in Latin…well, classical Latin at least. Church Latin is a little different. But for example, Julius Caesar would have spelled his name Iulius, with an I…making about the same sound.
bob 
I agree with NewJive about there being no J in Latin, but there are plenty of elements which do not come from Latin. The Noble gases and a few other elements come from Greek, which also has no J. Several are named after countries, although Japanium did not make the cut. Three are named after planets, so I guess Jupiterium just missed out. A whole lot of the most recent ones are named after Physicists. And even though we have one named after a US state, I wouldn’t hold my breath for NewJersium. As for the frequency of the letter J, I have notieced that when it does put in an appearance, it’s the first letter of the word, a vast majority (probably should have used a different term there) of the time.
There’s no W in Latin either, but theere it is on the periodic table, standing for Tungsten. (Wolfram is another name for it). Q doesn’t occur, except in the newfangled Unq (for unnilquadium). I’m not sure if Unq is still the official symbol for element 104. It’s an international disgrace to name elements that way.
I seem to remember that Elements 104 through 109 were officially named a few years ago. The reason it took so long is that multiple parties claimed to have discovered some of them first, and whoever discovers it should get to name it; I still think some of the names are in dispute, based on what I found. At any rate, nobody uses Unnilquadium, which is based on the Latin words for 1, 0, and 4, anymore. According to http://www.chemicalelements.com, the names of Elements 104 through 109 are, in order:
Rutherfordium (Rf)
Dubnium (Db)
Seaborgium (Sg)
Bohrium (Bh)
Hassium (Hs)
Meitnerium (Mt)
Of these, Rf, Sg, Bh, and Mt are named after Physicists. Db is named for a place-name in Russia, and Hs is named for “the Latin word Hassias, a German state” You would also be pleased to find out, José, that they give, as an alternate name for Db, Joliotium (Jl).
Wasn’t No. 105 originally Hahnium? Did they change it to appease the Russians (who had their own names for Nos. 104 and 105)?
I don’t think it’s any devious plot, just serendipity compounded by the fact that when the early elements were named the letter J wasn’t widely in use (as other posters have mentioned, I was a common replacement for J.)
Oh, BTW, to address one of Jose’s initial assertions: J is actually not a frequently used letter. In English, it’s the third least-often used letter.
The Frequency Alphabet: ETAONRISHDLFCMUGYPWBVKXJQZ.
Ok. Thanks, those responces pretty much explain why there aren’t any J’s on the table of elements. Our minds can now be at ease. I still think J is a popular first initial. The scientists’ that discover the elements probly only use there last names.
“J” is currently extremely popular as the first letter of first names.
A book I have which was put out by Scientific American in 1995 lists “proposed names” for elements 104-109. They’re all the same as the ones I posted earlier, except for 105, which is listed as Hahnium (Ha), so you were right about that, Geenius. Also, it has element 107 as Neilsbohrium (Ns), which, besides sounding cool, would be the first element on the Periodic Table to use a person’s first name.
In the case of Dubnium/Hahnium, the most likely explanation for the switch is that it was decided that the Russians created element 105 first. Thus, they get to name it. Same thing for Hassium/Neilsbohrium, except that the Germans beat out whover proposed Ns.
Other element name trivia: There’s no element with the symbol “M” because M is used to represent metal atoms in certain atomic diagrams. Likewize, H represents halogen atoms (fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, astatine). Also, X is a common wildcard symbol for atoms and functional groups, so even if an element is named Xenium, it would not likely get the symbol (X).
The real question is: What will they call element 115? Lazarium (Lz)?
[hijack]
I replaced a J once, too, but I got tired of it, found the SDMB, and I’ve never done it since.
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I’ve always found it interesting to look at older tables. Could someone find me an image of a table with less than 92 elements on it?
Diceman said, “Likewize, H represents halogen atoms…” But, that’s different, right, because there is an element with H as its symbol. Hydrogen. By the way, that wildcard thing is cool, but unfortunate. I always wanted the rest of the alphabet to be used up.
OOPS! :o
I goofed on the H, but M is commonly used to represent metals in general. Now that I think about, halogens are probably the most common use for the wildcard X, as in “NaX,” which could refer to any sodium salt, including soium chloride (table salt).
alright, what’s going on here? I can’t edit my own post, and I’m sure my password is right :mad:
Moderator!
Actually, as someone already mentioned, H=hydrogen.
Also, X is almost always the wildcard for “halogen”. M is the wildcard metal (as already mentioned) and “R” is the wildcard hydrocarbon group. You will never see “M” “R” or “X” as chemical symbols otherwise.
yup.
Thats all good and well, I just wanted to know about the J’s though.
johnjacobjingleheimerschmitzium.
Peace.