Wednesday 2 May 2018

Atomzahl

I have been used to using this representation of atomic mass number A and atomic number Z for any element X. I thought that they had chosen A and Z because they are the start and the end of the Latin alphabet. But I found out today that Z is from the German word Zahl meaning "number". I am not certain but I think A is for Atomgewicht or atomic weight. A different language, a different perspective!