What is the chemical symbol for tungsten?

W, from wolfram - and the two names come from a genuine dispute. Spanish chemists isolated the metal in 1783 from wolframite and called it wolframio; the Swedish claim ran through a mineral called tung sten, heavy stone. IUPAC settled on tungsten as the English name in 1949 but kept W as the symbol, so the element carries both sides of the argument.

It has the highest melting point of any metal, 3,422 degrees Celsius, which is why it was the filament in every incandescent bulb for a century and why it lines rocket nozzles. It is also nearly as dense as gold, giving it two grim uses: kinetic-energy penetrators for armour, and counterfeit gold bars, since a tungsten core plated in gold is very close to right on weight.

The name wolframite is a miner's insult that stuck. German tin miners found the ore ruined their smelt, carrying off the tin as froth, and said it devoured the tin like a wolf devours sheep - so the element that makes the toughest drill bits and the most durable filaments is named for being a nuisance.