Complete the statement.
Nickel is ().
A: an elementary substance
B: a compound
You can tell whether nickel 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 nickel is Ni. This formula contains one symbol: Ni. So, the formula tells you that nickel is made of one chemical element.
Substances made of only one chemical element are elementary substances. So, nickel is an elementary substance.