Silver the periodic table) is useful in nuclear reactors because of its high thermal neutron capture cross-section, good conduction of heat, mechanical stability, and resistance to corrosion in hot water. The word "silver" appears in Anglo-Saxon in various spellings, such as "seolfor" and "siolfor". A similar form is seen throughout the Germanic languages (compare Old High German "silabar" and "silbir"). The chemical symbol Ag is from the Latin word for "silver", "argentum" (compare Ancient Greek ἄργυρος, "árgyros"), from the Proto-Indo-European root *"h₂erǵ-" (formerly reconstructed as "*arǵ-"), meaning "white" or "shining": this was the usual Proto-Indo-European word for the metal, whose reflexes
Silver nitrate Silver nitrate Silver nitrate is an inorganic compound with chemical formula . This compound is a versatile precursor to many other silver compounds, such as those used in photography. It is far less sensitive to light than the halides. It was once called "lunar caustic" because silver was called "luna" by the ancient alchemists, who believed that silver was associated with the moon. In solid silver nitrate, the silver ions are three-coordinated in a trigonal planar arrangement. Albertus Magnus, in the 13th century, documented the ability of nitric acid to separate gold and silver by dissolving the silver. Magnus noted