Carbon is element number 6, with the symbol C. Its Japanese name, 炭素 (tanso), contains the character for charcoal, 炭. The name was created by Udagawa Yōan, a scholar of the Edo period.
Atomic number 612.01
CCarbon炭素 (tanso)
Symbol
C
Atomic weight
12.01
Place in the table
Period 2 · Group 14
Atomic weight from the Chemical Society of Japan, “Table of Standard Atomic Weights with Four Significant Figures (2026)”.
“Charcoal-source”
In Dutch, carbon is koolstof. Udagawa Yōan translated the Dutch name piece by piece into Chinese characters, making 炭素, “charcoal-source.” The Japanese words for hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen were made the same way.
The symbol C comes from carbo, Latin for charcoal. Carbon is one of the elements that people have known since ancient times.
Charcoal that takes oxygen away
In Japanese junior high school science, students confirm by experiment that oxidation and reduction are reactions involving oxygen. Carbon can pull oxygen away from other substances.
Today’s computer chips are made with carbon’s help. When silica stone (silicon dioxide) is mixed with carbon and heated strongly, the oxygen leaves as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and silicon about 99% pure is left behind.
Carbon is also one of the nine elements that plants need in large amounts.
Think about it
Q1When you turn a Dutch word into Chinese characters, what kind of choices do you have to make?
Q2When carbon takes oxygen away from something, what happens to that thing?
Q3Look around you for things with “carbon” or “charcoal” in their names.
There is no single right answer. Talking it over with someone at home is a good way to learn.
Did you know? — In Japanese ninth-grade science, one example experiment is passing an electric current through copper chloride solution using carbon electrodes.