Why Does Potassium Have The Symbol K?

The atomic symbol for Potassium is ‘K’. The K comes from the Latin name for potassium, ‘kalium’. The symbols of a chemical element are abbreviations that are used to denote a chemical element. Typically, they are one or two letters long with the first letter capitalised; temporary names are three letters long. They are widely used in chemistry and they have been officially chosen by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. There are also some historical symbols that are no longer official.

The atom of each element is made up of electrons, protons and neutrons. All atoms of the same neutral element have the same number of protons and electrons, but the number of neutrons can differ.

Atoms of the same element but different neutrons are called isotopes. Because of these isotopes it becomes necessary to develop a notation to distinguish one isotope from another, the atomic symbol. The atomic symbol has three parts to it. First of all there is the element symbol, then the atomic number which is equal to the number of protons and this is placed as a left subscript. Finally there is the mass number which is equal to the number of protons and neutrons in the isotope and this is also placed as a left superscript.

Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (Neo-Latin kalium), atomic number 19, and atomic mass 39.098. Elemental potassium is a soft silvery-white metallic alkali metal that oxidizes rapidly in air and is very reactive with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite the hydrogen emitted in the reaction.

Potassium and sodium are alkali metals and are chemically very similar. For this reason, historically their salts were not differentiated. They were finally suspected to be different elements within their salts after 1702, and this was finally proven to be case when potassium and sodium were isolated separately from different salts by electrolysis, in 1807. Potassium in nature occurs only as ionic salt.

The word potassium has been originated from the English word Potash. The chemical symbol K means "kalium," the Medival Latin term for potash, which in turn is derived from the Arabic word qali (meaning akali).

Potassium, a member of the alkali group of the periodic chart is a soft, silvery-white metal. Though it looks silvery when cut initially, it immediately oxidizes with air and gets tarnished within minutes. It is generally stored under grease or oil. Potassium is light enough to float into water, reacting instantly to emit hydrogen. Potassium is detected by taste because it has a tendency to trigger all the types of tastebuds, as per the concentration. Dilute solutions of potassium ion taste sweet and those with higher concentrations taste bitter or alkaline, and finally saline to the tongue.

The symbol "k" stands for "kalium", the Latin for English potash(ash of burnt wood or leaves collected in a pot), which has given rise to the scientific name potassium.

Potassium's chemical
symbol comes from the Latin word for alkali, kalium.