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Ridiculously, I never twigged until now that the planet and the element shared a name despite being aware of both, forever.

by barking 10y ago

inimino 10y ago
Somehow I was also wondering what the element mercury could possibly have to do with tectonics, until seeing the NASA domain... Perhaps because the element is just more commonly mentioned than the planet?
- barking 10y ago
  I think it's because the context going by the title is earth based for me. Whenever I've heard mention of tectonics it's related to earth and and the only mercury on earth is the element, so my brain zoomed in on that. I remember once asking a german friend if she didn't think that english was better for only having one form of my, the, etc. She said that in german there was less room for confusion because the listener would immediately know whether 'my friend', for example, was a boy or a girl. German is more strongly typed, we rely more on the context in english. It seems that in my experiences Mercury the planet and Mercury the element have never before come up in a context where there could be ambiguity.
- cjhveal 10y ago
  Another possible contributing factor is that Mercury/mercury is a capitonym[0] in that it changes its understood meaning via capitalization, which is obviously obscured when it's used in a headline or as the first word in a sentence. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym
theandrewbailey 10y ago
Not to mention elements named after planets: Uranium and Neptunium. Even minor planets, too: Plutonium and Cerium.
- T-hawk 10y ago
  Pluto wasn't considered minor at the time the element was named, of course.
FreeFull 10y ago
Most of the major planets were named after Roman gods (except obviously for Earth). Some elements were also directly named after the gods (Mercury) and some were named after the planets (Neptunium).
troels 10y ago
Get ready to have your mind blown then: https://global.britannica.com/topic/Mercury-Roman-god https://global.britannica.com/topic/Mercury-Roman-god

Ridiculously, I never twigged until now that the planet and the element shared a name despite being aware of both, forever.

by barking 10y ago

Ridiculously, I never twigged until now that the planet and the element shared a name despite being aware of both, forever.

inimino 10y ago

Somehow I was also wondering what the element mercury could possibly have to do with tectonics, until seeing the NASA domain... Perhaps because the element is just more commonly mentioned than the planet?

barking 10y ago
I think it's because the context going by the title is earth based for me. Whenever I've heard mention of tectonics it's related to earth and and the only mercury on earth is the element, so my brain zoomed in on that. I remember once asking a german friend if she didn't think that english was better for only having one form of my, the, etc. She said that in german there was less room for confusion because the listener would immediately know whether 'my friend', for example, was a boy or a girl. German is more strongly typed, we rely more on the context in english. It seems that in my experiences Mercury the planet and Mercury the element have never before come up in a context where there could be ambiguity.
cjhveal 10y ago
Another possible contributing factor is that Mercury/mercury is a capitonym[0] in that it changes its understood meaning via capitalization, which is obviously obscured when it's used in a headline or as the first word in a sentence. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitonym

theandrewbailey 10y ago

Not to mention elements named after planets: Uranium and Neptunium. Even minor planets, too: Plutonium and Cerium.

T-hawk 10y ago
Pluto wasn't considered minor at the time the element was named, of course.

FreeFull 10y ago

Most of the major planets were named after Roman gods (except obviously for Earth). Some elements were also directly named after the gods (Mercury) and some were named after the planets (Neptunium).

troels 10y ago

Get ready to have your mind blown then: https://global.britannica.com/topic/Mercury-Roman-god https://global.britannica.com/topic/Mercury-Roman-god