Chemical element of metals. Cu comes from Cuprum, Fe comes from Ferrum, Ag from Argentum. The symbols were not followed by a period (full stop) as with abbreviations. Later chemical elements were also assigned unique chemical symbols, based on the name of the element, but not necessarily in English. For example, sodium has the chemical symbol 'Na' after the Latin "natrium". The same applies to "W" (wolfram) for tungsten, "Fe" (ferrum) for iron, "Hg" (hydrargyrum) for mercury, "Sn" (stannum) for tin, "K" (kalium) for potassium, "Au" (aurum) for gold, "Ag" (argentum) for silver, "Pb" (plumbum) for lead, "Cu" (cuprum) for copper, and
Melting-point depression during experiment. Melting point depression was predicted in 1909 by Pawlow. Takagi first observed melting point depression of several types of metal nanoparticles in 1954. A variable intensity electron beam from a transmission electron microscope melted metal nanoparticles in early experiments. Diffraction patterns changed from characteristic crystalline patterns to liquid patterns as the small particles melted, allowing Takagi to estimate the melting temperature from the electron beam energy. Nanoparticles have a much greater surface to volume ratio than bulk materials. The increased surface to volume ratio means surface atoms have a much greater effect on chemical and physical properties of