Summary:
- Shorthand was a very popular way of recording speech, especially in dictating letters and in court testimony.
- Chemists use chemical symbols in combination to indicate specific compounds.
- Chemical symbols represent a universal language that all chemists can understand, no matter what their native language is.
- If you know the name of a binary ionic compound, you can write its chemical formula.
- For example, the ions for the compound lithium oxide are: Li2O.
- The formula for aluminum nitride is Al2O3.