A wrong name sticks with you for life.science

If we analyze the sun’s light by wavelength, it looks like this:

Several black lines appear on the continuous spectrum.

Some lines matched those seen in the spectrum of hydrogen lights, but

There were still streaks left, and scientists at the time thought that these empty spectra were made up of metals.

In Greek, the sun is Helios.

The main character of the empty spectrum is

metal of the sun

, that is, it got the name helios + ium = hel-i-um

But alas, this material that was actually observed later was a very light gas.

However, since this name was already registered, it could not be changed.

Although it is a non-metallic element, it is the only one with the name of a metal.

helium

It became.