Question

Consider the letters in the word chemistry. Use them to make as many word "compounds" as is possible with 9 elements. How is an element different from a compound?

Answer 1

Interesting question...

The various permutations of valid elements from the word "chemistry" are:

• `C`
• `Ce`
• `Cm`
• `Cs`
• `Cr`
• `H`
• `He`
• `Es`
• `Er`
• `I`
• `Ir`
• `S`
• `Sc`
• `Se`
• `Sm`
• `Si`
• `Sr`
• `Tc`
• `Th`
• `Te`
• `Tm`
• `Ti`
• `Rh`
• `Re`
• `Y`

So you have any `9` of these at your disposal when making compounds. Let us choose the easiest elements to use: `C`, `Cs`, `H`, `I`, `S`, `Se`, `Si`, `Sr`, `Te`. None of those are transition metals.

These are the compounds I can think of that exist:

• `CH_4`
• `HI`
• `CsI`
• `H_2S`
• `H_2Se`
• `SiH_4`
• `SrI_2`
• `TeI`

There are probably more but anyways, you can clearly see that each of these have two different elements. That's the definition of a compound.