• Question: What is the chemical symbol for oxygen

    Asked by swifty0902 to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 11 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      O is the chemical symbol for oxygen.

    • Photo: Laura Soul

      Laura Soul answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      It’s O, a lot of chemical symbols for elements are the first letter of the element’s name, or the first two letters. Except for some confusing ones like gold which is Au, but this is usually because they used to be called something else a long time ago.

    • Photo: Sandra Phinbow

      Sandra Phinbow answered on 11 Mar 2013:

      The chemical symbol is O, but Oxygen atoms like to hang around in pairs – this is when they are most stable and happy – as a molecule. So we write this as O2. Which means two atoms of Oxygen.

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