Puzzles of the Black Widowers - By Isaac Asimov Page 0,13
is a chemist?"
Rubin said, "You don't have to be a professional chemist at the Ph.D. level to know something about the elements."
"All right, Uncle Manny," said Horace. "What's the answer, then?"
Rubin said, "Personally, I'm stuck on carbon. It's the chemical of life and, in the form of diamond, it has another type of uniqueness. Is there any other element that, in its pure form, has an unusual aspect - "
"Allotrope it's called, Uncle."
"Don't fling your jargon at me, pip-squeak. Is there any other element that has an allotrope as unusual as diamond?"
"No. And aside from human judgments concerning its beauty and value, the diamond happens to be the hardest substance in existence, under normal conditions."
"Well, then?"
"I've already said that it's too obvious for an organic chemist to set up carbon as a solution to the problem."
"Sure," said Rubin. "He chose the obvious because he thinks you'll dismiss it because it's obvious."
"There speaks the mystery writer," grumbled Trumbull.
"Just the same, I reject that solution," said Horace. "You can advise me, any of you, but I'm the one to make the decision to accept or reject. Any other ideas?"
There was complete silence about the table.
"In that case," said Horace, "I'd better tell you one of my thoughts. I'm getting desperate, you see. Youngerlea said, 'I'm thinking of the name of a unique chemical element.' He didn't say he was thinking of the element, but of the name of the element."
"Are you sure you remember that correctly?" said Avalon. "You didn't tape the conversation, and memory can be a tricky thing."
"No, no. I remember it clearly. I'm not the least uncertain. Not the least. - So yesterday I got to thinking that it's not the physical or chemical properties of the element that count. That's just a red herring. It's the name that counts."
"Have you got a unique name?" asked Halsted.
"Unfortunately," said Horace, "the names give you as much oversupply as the properties of the elements do. If you consider an alphabetical listing of the elements, actinium, element number eighty-nine, is first on the list, and zirconium, element number forty, is the last on the list. Dysprosium, which is element number sixty-six, is the only element with a name that begins with a D. Krypton, element number thirty-six, is the only one with a name that begins with a K. Uranium, Vanadium, and Xenon, which are elements numbers ninety-two, twenty-three, and fifty-four, respectively, are the only elements to begin with a U, V, or X. How do I choose among these five? U is the only vowel, but that seems weak."
Gonzalo said, "Is there any letter that doesn't start the name of any element at all?"
"Three. There is no element that starts with J, Q or W - but what good is that? You can't claim an element is unique just because it doesn't exist. You can argue that there are an infinite number of elements that don't exist."
Drake said, "Mercury has, as an alternative name, 'quicksilver,' That starts with a Q."
"I know, but that's feeble," said Horace. "In German, I and J are not distinguished in print. The chemical symbol of iodine is I, but I've seen German papers in Latin print, in which the symbol of the element is given as J, but that's even feebler.
"Speaking of the chemical symbols, there are thirteen elements with symbols that are single letters. Almost always that letter is the initial of the name of the element. Thus, carbon has the symbol C; oxygen, O; nitrogen, N; phosphorus, P; sulfur, S; and so on. However, the element potassium has the symbol K."
"Why?" asked Gonzalo.
"Because that's the initial of the German name, Kalium. If potassium were the only case, I might consider it, but tungsten has the symbol W, for the German name, Wolfram, so neither is unique. Strontium has a name that starts with three consonants, but so do chlorine and chromium. Iodine has a name that starts with two vowels, but so do einsteinium and europium. I'm stopped at every turn."
Gonzalo said, "is there anything about the spelling of the element names that is the same in almost all of them?"
"Almost all of them end in ium."
"Really?" said Gonzalo, snapping his fingers in an agony of thought. "How about the element the British pronounce differently. They call it 'aluminium' with the ium ending, but we say 'aluminum' so that it has only a um ending, and the professor made a fuss about it. Maybe it's aluminum that's unique, then."