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Do the names of chemical elements need to be capitalized?

For example, in running text should it be hydrogen or Hydrogen?

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up vote 11 down vote accepted

While chemical symbols always begin with a capital letter, the names of chemical elements do not. In running text, you should be writing H, O, Cl, Fe, etc., but hydrogen, oxygen, chlorine, iron, etc.

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That is what happens with the physics units: joule, watt, erg, etc. – kiamlaluno Oct 12 '10 at 15:02

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