Q 01/05

What is sodium's atomic number?

A) 12

B) 19

C) 11

D) 23

Answer · why

C) 11

It sits in group 1 of the periodic table, one electron beyond the noble gas neon.

Q 02/05

Sodium's chemical symbol Na comes from natrium, a Neo-Latin word derived from what?

A) The Greek for 'salt'

B) A Persian word for 'soft'

C) The Arabic for 'headache'

D) The Egyptian mineral natron

Answer · why

D) The Egyptian mineral natron

Natron is a natural salt of hydrated sodium carbonate that the Egyptians dug from Wadi El Natrun.

Q 03/05

The word 'sodium' itself is thought to come from the Arabic 'suda', meaning what?

A) Bitter salt

B) Headache

C) White powder

D) Sea foam

Answer · why

B) Headache

Medieval Europeans used sodanum, a sodium compound, as a headache remedy.

Q 04/05

Who first isolated sodium metal in 1807?

A) Antoine Lavoisier

B) Humphry Davy

C) Michael Faraday

D) Jons Jakob Berzelius

Answer · why

B) Humphry Davy

He used electrolysis of sodium hydroxide, and isolated potassium the same year.

Q 05/05

Which Swedish chemist first published the abbreviation Na for sodium, in 1814?

A) Carl Wilhelm Scheele

B) Svante Arrhenius

C) Alfred Nobel

D) Jons Jakob Berzelius

Answer · why

D) Jons Jakob Berzelius

A German chemist had proposed the name 'Natronium' for Davy's discovery in 1809.