What did Uranium get its name from?

1 Answer
anor277
Jun 10, 2017

From the Greek #ourhoalphanuos#............

Explanation:

And I think #ourhoalphanuos# means #"heaven"#.

As far as I know, uranium was first isolated by Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1789 from the mineral pitchblende. Because the planet #"Uranus"# had recently been discovered, he named the metal #"uranium".# Klaproth, apparently also isolated cerium, #Z=58#, and zirconium, #Z=40#; he must have been a very accomplished chemist - especially in the days before atomic number and mass had been properly elucidated.

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