User talk:R8R/Rethinking rules on spellings of elements

I think the situation of "sulfur" in the UK is a little different from that of "aluminium" and "caesium" in the US. The British spellings to my knowledge are never used in the US, but in the UK it will somewhat correlate with the question: are you old enough to have been educated with the "f" spellings in chemistry courses? (The reason, of course, is that the vast majority of British chemists listened to IUPAC on spelling "sulfur", while an equally vast majority of American chemists refused to listen to IUPAC on spelling "aluminium" and "caesium".) (Off topic: "sulfur" can of course be found in earlier British documents from about the 18th and 19th centuries, but then it becomes difficult to pin down the concept of British and American spellings since Webster's dictionary came out only in 1806. You may be amused to know that Shakespeare used "center" and "color", along with not spelling his own name consistently...) Double sharp (talk) 09:39, 2 December 2016 (UTC)