Scandium

Scandium is named after Scandinavia, the region where it was discovered in 1879 by Lars Fredrik Nilson. It is a soft, silvery metal that is actually more common in the Sun and other stars than on Earth. Scandium was one of the elements predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev when he created the periodic table — he left a gap for it and described its properties before it was even found!

Scandium is used in high-performance aluminum-scandium alloys that make aerospace components and sports equipment lighter and stronger. Some baseball bats, bicycle frames, and lacrosse sticks contain scandium alloys. It is also used in certain stadium lights because scandium iodide lamps produce light very close to natural sunlight.

The symbol 'Sc' is a useful two-letter element in Spellement. It matches the beginning of words like 'science,' 'score,' and 'school,' connecting nicely with common English words. Scandium helps spellers tackle words that start with this frequent consonant cluster.