the experiments.

Ah, there's so much more behind each label Here's the story of the names on the periodic

table

The first name, hydrogen, means it likes to form water

While the last one sounds like a spell from Harry Potter

Silicon is named for a rock in the ground And many more are called for where they are

found

Sulfur's just sulfur, as far back as we know And calx and borax date from quite a while

ago

This one's from a red stone, and this one's yellow

And one's from a rock named for this Russian fellow

Chromium's compounds have colorful sheens Bromine stinks, and chlorine wafts green

Bismuth starts white, until its colors come out

Zinc has pointy crystals, and barium's stout

Indium's not for India as you may have learned It's just one of four color spectra this bunch

makes when they burn

They tasted aluminum and thought it was bitter Rhodium's rose, Iodine's violet and zirconium

a gold-like glitter

Speaking of gold, the name's different from the symbol slapped on

Our mouths speak "shining yellow" while we abbreviate "shining dawn"

Many other names don't match abbreviations And those can be confusing situations

Potash, or kalium, comes from burnt wood While nater, or soda, made headaches feel

good

For a few more, one language can't settle Like, Ferrum is latin, but iron's a "holy

metal"

Tungsten in America beat Wolfram from across the pond

But niobium not columbium that compromise spawned

Many names are the products of reactions Bringing forth acid, or nitre, or charcoal

transactions

They found osmium thanks to its distinctive smell

And fluorine in fluorspar which makes metals flow well

Antimony means dead monk OR never alone And Lithium's the first alkali that was found

in a stone

Splitting this mineral gave elements two, praseodymium the green twin and neodymium

the new

There's a group of idle gases that don't react One was named by a child, little-known fact.

Dysprosium's not the only one playing hard to get

For a long time ores held Lanthanum's secret

Astatine's unstable and will quickly decay Like these radioactives, all three meaning

"ray"

Technetium's so rare we found it by making it

And these are so new that they haven't even been named yet

The Greeks thought molybdenum might have been lead,

While the Spaniard's "little silver" was Platinum instead

Cadmium's in calamine, for Cadmus the prince And lots more from mythology have been added

since

There's goblins and devils and even mighty Thor

Who walked on Iris' rainbow to Asgard's door

There's Vanadis, Tantalus, Ceres, and the Titans

The giver of fire, and the one whose light brightens

Speaking of light we found Helium in the sun, And Mercury, that liquid silver, is a planetary

one

There's an asteroid, Earth, and even the moon Uranus, pluto and also neptune

There's a crazy story behind 93, it was named for Italy by Enrico Fermi

But his science was wrong, and when his Nobel came along, he snuck off to the States to

be free.

A river, a state, a college, a lab called Livermore

And one mine in Sweden gave us names for four

Cyprus and Magnesia, places so old Russia and Scandinavia, places so cold

We could draw a map of Europe with the places that remain

But is Gallium for France? Or the discoverer's name?

The rest are for people, but those are pretty clear.

They found half this stuff, they deserve to be here!

Thanks for watching, and . . . stay curious. I'm officially out of rhymes, so subscribe

to see more of us.