Originally posted by Janik
View Post
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
An interesting thing I didn't know until today
Collapse
X
-
Yttrium - yes
Scandium - no. That is named after the whole of Scandinavia rather than a specific town in Sweden. But the whole of Scandinavia is not the biggest chunk to also be an atom - that would be planets:- Mercury, Uranium, Neptunium and Plutonium. Uranium, Neptunium and Plutonium are sequential elements in the periodic table: proton numbers 92, 93 and 94 respectively. Neptunium is by far the lesser known as an element of the three as it has little to no commercial use.
Comment
-
Yup, those four.
I'm assuming Ytterbium was the first. And then a second was unearthed and isolated, leading to a "erm, what do we call this one?" moment. Which was solved by calling it Yttrium. And that then defined Erbium when a third appeared - 'Erby' as opposed to 'Ytt'. Then there was a fourth - Ah, f*ck, OK, 'Terbium' then.
- Likes 1
Comment
-
On what seems like similar lines, i learned today (well yesterday evening to be accurate) that Neanderthals were named after the Neander valley in Germany where evidence of their existence was first found*
(*By modern day homo sapiens I mean, I guess the neanderthals themselves had evidence of themselves and each other before then)
Comment
-
Well, yes, but do you know the rest of the history behind that name? The Neander valley isn't the valley of the river Neander, cos there ain't no such river. It's a stretch of some river (forget the name of it) that the locals named Neandertal in honour of local historic figure, a scholar called Neander who was apparently fond of going for a stroll in the area. And Neander was not his birth surname - that was Neumann, which he translated into Greek ("ne" = new, "ander" = man) in the Renaissance scholar fashion of the time. So we have the supreme irony of our historic predecessors in Europe being called the "new man [valleys]".Last edited by Evariste Euler Gauss; 29-11-2022, 14:39.
- Likes 2
Comment
-
Originally posted by ad hoc View PostOn what seems like similar lines, i learned today (well yesterday evening to be accurate) that Neanderthals were named after the Neander valley in Germany where evidence of their existence was first found*
(*By modern day homo sapiens I mean, I guess the neanderthals themselves had evidence of themselves and each other before then)
Comment
-
Originally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss View PostWe could have an Only Connect connections group if someone could supply two more items to go with Neandertal and Wensleydale.
I can give you one - Wright Valley in Antarctica. The valley shares a name with a glacier, but also has a river (or rather a stream). But that isn't the Wright - it's the Onyx.
Comment
-
Originally posted by Janik View PostIdeally three more, with one of the items a red herring that potentially could be part of the group but actually is placed with a different one.
I can give you one - Wright Valley in Antarctica. The valley shares a name with a glacier, but also has a river (or rather a stream). But that isn't the Wright - it's the Onyx.
Comment
-
Originally posted by ChrisJ View PostIn the spirit of the thread, despite having relatives in Cwmbran, I'd always thought the river there was the Usk/Wysg. Thought it looked a bit small.
- Likes 2
Comment
-
Looking at some old football medals on eBay I found one for the startlingly-named "NigNog football league" in 1948, and then via Google learning about "NigNog clubs" for children; "Nig" and "Nog" being Northern terms for boy and girl.
Comment
Comment