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.

Related questions
See all questions in Elements
Impact of this question
2844 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License