From TONY TURNER
Can anyone help me? As a teacher I point out to students every year
that helium is a non-metal although the ending -ium is usually reserved
for metallic elements. Helium was discovered in the Sun by spectroscopy
and no one knew if it was metallic or non-metallic, so why was the -ium
suffix used and why wasn’t helium renamed helion when its nature was discovered?
Tony Turner Pakuranga, Auckland New Zealand
