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