Complete the statement.
Palladium is ().
A: a compound
B: an elementary substance
You can tell whether palladium is an elementary substance or a compound by counting the number of symbols in its chemical formula. A symbol contains either one capital letter or a capital letter followed by one or two lowercase letters.
The chemical formula for palladium is Pd. This formula contains one symbol: Pd. So, the formula tells you that palladium is made of one chemical element.
Substances made of only one chemical element are elementary substances. So, palladium is an elementary substance.