Over here in New Zealand we call the kitchen staple "tin foil" but in Aussie they call it "aluminium".
“Why do Americans call it aluminum and Australians call it aluminium?” The difference dates back almost to the original isolation and naming of the metal.
Foil made from a thin leaf of tin was commercially available before its aluminium counterpart. Tin foil was marketed commercially from the late nineteenth into the early twentieth century. The term "tin foil" survives in the English language as a term for the newer aluminium foil.
Origin of tinfoil
Also called, British, silver paper.
Tin foil, also spelled tinfoil, is a thin foil made of tin. Tin foil was superseded after World War II by cheaper and more durable aluminium foil, which is still referred to as "tin foil" in many regions (an example of a misnomer).
Tin Foil vs.
Material makeup: Tin foil was made with thin leaf tin and sometimes combined with lead. Aluminum foil is made from an alloy that is between 92 and 99 percent aluminum. Cost: Aluminum foil is significantly cheaper to make than tin foil. As an added bonus, it's also more efficient and effective.
Cheaper, lighter and recyclable, aluminum rapidly overtook tin and steel.
Aluminum has not been obtained in a perfectly free state.” Nevertheless, other British chemists decided to adopt the name Aluminium. They thought it had a more classical sound and was in line with the ending of the other elements isolated by Davy.
Aluminium was favoured by academics for it's classical sounding name, that fit with other elements like sodium and potassium – but the huge gap from discovery and initial naming to the final form of aluminium was significant enough to allow aluminum to prevail in American English.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) officially adopted aluminum in 1925, but in 1990 The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) accepted aluminium as the international standard. And so we land today: with aluminum used by the English speakers of North America, and aluminium used everywhere else.
Tin foil is very common in Central Atlantic US.
One such word is "aluminium", the pronunciation of which has left a number of my American friends bewildered on the spot, since the standard American equivalent famously drops the final "i" to spell out "aluminum."
There are also some words that are spelled completely differently. So in the US, you might see 'aluminum' used, whereas in Australia you'd use 'aluminium' instead.
Zee became the standard way to pronounce Z in the United States in the 19th century. It's said that zee most likely came about because it rhymes with other letter pronunciations in the English alphabet (e.g., e, d, c, b, g, and p).
Aluminum and aluminium are two names for element 13 on the periodic table. In both cases, the element symbol is Al, although Americans and Canadians spell and pronounce the name aluminum, while the British (and most of the rest of the world) use the spelling and pronunciation of aluminium.
In American English, this element is called aluminum, while in British English it's more commonly referred to as aluminium. The two names refer to the same chemical element. In scientific writing and academia, both aluminum and aluminium are commonly used and considered correct names.
Sir Humphry was not immediately decisive about the name, initially spelling it alumium in 1807. He then changed it to aluminum, and finally settled on aluminium in 1812.
aluminum (n.)
1812, coined by English chemist Sir Humphry Davy, from alumina, alumine, the name given by French chemists late 18c. to aluminum oxide, from Latin alumen "alum" (see alum). Davy originally called it alumium (1808), then amended this to aluminum, which remains the U.S. word.
Aluminum foil is a thinly rolled sheet of aluminum that's claimed its place as a common kitchen staple. Not only is it safe to cook with aluminum foil in the oven, but cooking with aluminum foil can help transmit heat readily and make cleanup easier.
According to Robinson, crushed aluminum cans are harder to sort at some locations, raising the risk of contamination. They're also more prone to falling through gaps in sorting equipment and getting lost.