naming chemical compounds.

I don't really get how you get the symbol from the word or the other way around for polyotomic ions

so.. here are some examples that a website gave me:

this is wut the site said to do:(Its confusing to me)

The name of the compound should have a roman numeral placed between the name of the cation and the anion to indicate the specific charge of the cation being used. To determine this charge you need to determine what charge is needed to balance the overall compound. To do this multiply the charge of the anion by the number of anions divide this by the number of cations. This will give the charge for the cation.

Examples:

FeO - iron II Oxide PbO - lead II oxide

Fe2O3 - iron III oxide PbO2 - lead IV oxide

CuOH - copper I hydroxide CrNO3 - chromium II nitrate

Cu(OH)2 - copper II hydroxide CrNO2 - chromium II nitrite

so basically im wondering how they got from the symbols to the names

Thanks:)

oh i got it!! nevermind.

The periodic table is made up of a bunch of elements (something like 116 or so and still rising) BUT each has a name AND a symbol. The simple way of answering that part of your question is to say memorize them. That isn't that hard to do but usually we don't need to know all of them; just the common ones. MOST of them use the beginning letter for symbols. For example:

B is boron.
C is carbon.
N is nitrogen.
O is oxygen.
F is fluorine.
H is hydrogen.
BUT since there are many elements that begin with the same letter, that system goes awry; therefore, some elements must have the first two letters or at least the first and another letter.
So B is boron and Be is beryllium, Ba is barium.
C is carbon so Ca is calcium, Cr is chromium, Cd is cadmium, etc.
H is hydrogen so He is helium, and Ho is holmium.
Then there are the funny ones like you posted.
There are a number of elements that were known in the dark ages and those elements were named by Greeks/Italians/Germans/ you get the picture.
Cu is copper (from cuprum--latin)
Fe is iron (from ferrum)
Hg is mercury (from hydragynum)
Ag is silver (from argentum)
Pb is lead (from plumbum)
Sn is tin (from stannum).
W is tungsten (W for wolfram from German --In fact the IUPAC insists wolfram is the correct name (or at least did) but the U. S. said we would go along with the symbol of W (to make it internationally accepted ) but we still would call it tunsten).
K is potassium (from the German word Kalium).

I hope I've answered part of your question. If I didn't get to everything please post again.Thanks.

Naming chemical compounds involves determining the correct name for a given chemical formula or symbol. To understand how to convert between symbols and names, let's break down the process step by step.

1. Understanding Cations and Anions:
Chemical compounds are made up of positively charged ions called cations and negatively charged ions called anions. Cations are typically metals, and anions are either nonmetals or polyatomic ions (groups of atoms with an overall charge).

2. Writing Chemical Formulas:
Chemical formulas represent the composition of a compound using symbols for the elements involved. The symbol of the cation is written first, followed by the symbol of the anion.

3. Determining Charges:
To name compounds correctly, we need to know the charges of the ions involved. Some elements have fixed charges (e.g., magnesium always has a charge of +2), while others can have multiple charges depending on the compound.

a) In the case of transition metals (such as Fe or Pb), they can have various charges. To determine the charge of a transition metal cation, you need to calculate it based on the charge of the anion. The formula provided on the website helps with this calculation: "multiply the charge of the anion by the number of anions and divide this by the number of cations."

4. Naming Ionic Compounds:
a) For binary ionic compounds (compounds with only two elements), the name of the cation comes first and is followed by the name of the anion. The anion's name is derived from the root of the element's name and ends with "-ide." For example, FeO is iron II oxide because Fe is the cation with a charge of +2, and O is the anion.

b) For compounds with polyatomic ions (groups of atoms with an overall charge), the name of the cation is followed by the polyatomic ion's name. Again, the anion's name is derived from the root of the polyatomic ion's name and ends with "-ide." Note that some polyatomic ions have specific names, such as hydroxide (OH-) or nitrate (NO3-).

c) When there are multiple possible charges for a transition metal, a Roman numeral is used between the cation's name and the anion's name to indicate the specific charge of the cation. The Roman numeral is equal to the charge of the cation. For example, Fe2O3 is iron III oxide because Fe has a charge of +3, and O is the anion.

To summarize:
- Determine the charges of the cation and anion.
- Write the symbol of the cation first, followed by the symbol of the anion.
- Name binary compounds by using the root of the element's name for the anion, ending with "-ide."
- Name compounds with polyatomic ions by using the name of the cation followed by the name of the polyatomic ion.
- Use a Roman numeral if the cation is a transition metal with multiple possible charges.

Remember that practice is essential in mastering compound naming conventions, so working through more examples will contribute to your understanding.