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Nomenclature of Elements with Atomic Number Greater than 100
Usually, when a new element is discovered, the discoverer suggests a name following IUPAC guidelines which will be approved after a public opinion. In the meantime, the new element will be called by a temporary name coined using the following IUPAC rules, until the IUPAC recognises the new name.
1. The name was derived directly from the atomic number of the new element using the following numerical roots.
Notation for IUPAC Nomenclature of Elements
2. The numerical roots corresponding to the atomic number are put together and ‘ium’ is added as suffix
3. The final ‘n’ of ‘enn’ is omitted when it is written before ‘nil’ (enn + nil = enil) similarly the final ‘i’ of ‘bi’ and ‘tri’ is omitted when it written before ‘ium’ (bi + ium = bium; tri + ium = trium)
4. The symbol of the new element is derived from the first letter of the numerical roots.
The following table illustrates these facts.
To overcome all these difficulties, IUPAC nomenclature has been recommended for all the elements with Z > 100. It was decided by IUPAC that the names of elements beyond atomic number 100 should use Latin words for their numbers. The names of these elements are derived from their numerical roots.
Fermium is a synthetic element with the symbol Fm and atomic number 100. It is an actinide and the heaviest element that can be formed by neutron bombardment of lighter elements, and hence the last element that can be prepared in macroscopic quantities, although pure fermium metal has not yet been prepared.
The twelve elements of nature are Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, Thunder, Ice, Force, Time, Flower, Shadow, Light and Moon.
Uranium
The heaviest element known to occur in nature is uranium, which contains only 92 protons, putting it 30 places below the putative new element in the periodic table. In the laboratory, physicists have managed to create elements up to 118, but they are all highly unstable.
The fifth element on top of earth, air, fire, and water, is space or aether. It was hard for people to believe that the stars and everything else in space were made of the other elements, so space was considered as a fifth element.
According to ancient and medieval science, aether also spelled ether, aither, or ether and also called quintessence (fifth element), is the material that fills the region of the universe above the terrestrial sphere.