PERIODIC

TABLE
Periodic Table,tableofthechemical elements
arranged to illustrate patterns of recurring
chemical and physical properties. Elements,
such as oxygen, iron, and gold, are the most
basic chemical substances and cannot be
broken down by chemical reactions. All other
substances are formed from combinations of
elements. The periodic table provides a means
of arranging all the known elements and even
those yet to be discovered.

PERIODIC
TABLE
Althoughallelements differ from one

another,
some show similarities that allow scientists to
categorize them. Around 1870, Russian chemist
Dmitry Mendeleyev used these similarities to
construct the original periodic table. Since that
time, newly discovered elements have been added
and the tables layout has changed; however, the
modern periodic table conveys essentially the
same information as the one that Mendeleyev
created. In the modern table, elements with
similar properties fall into columns called groups
or families. Group 1 of the periodic table, for
example, contains a number of soft metals, all of
which react vigorously with water to form

ARRANGEMENT
OF TABLE

ARRANGEMENT
OF TABLE
Theelementswithinthe modern periodic table are
arranged from left to right, top to bottom, in order of
increasing atomic number. An elements atomic number is
the number of protons in its nucleus. More than 90
elements have been found to occur naturally on Earth.
The periodic table also includes artificially created
elements. These additions have the highest atomic
numbers on the table. They must be prepared through
experiments with nuclear reactions. The most recent
element to be synthesized has 116 protons in the nucleus
of each of its atoms. The elements most recently
produced have not yet been officially named.

ARRANGEMENT
OF TABLE
Whereastheorderingof
the
elements
is
completely determined by their atomic numbers,
the arrangement into vertical columns, called
groups, is determined by a number of factors.
These factors include chemical properties,
physical properties, and the number of electrons
thought to exist in the outer shells of the
elements atoms. (The electrons that surround
the nucleus of an atom are arranged in
concentric shells.)

ARRANGEMENT
OF TABLE

Theplacementofelements into groups within the

periodic table is not completely clear-cut. Some
scientists disagree about minor differences in the
placement of elements such as hydrogen and
helium. Helium, which does not react with other
elements, is usually placed in group 18, which
houses the noble gases. This group also includes
neon, argon, and krypton, all of which are also very
unreactive. Scientists who group the elements based
primarily on the number of outer-shell electrons
place helium with elements such as magnesium,
calcium, and barium among the alkaline earth metals
of group 2. Elements in group 2 have two electrons in
their outermost shell.

ARRANGEMENT
OF
TABLE
Theperiodictablehas been published in various
shapes and sizes, but the most commonly used
modern form begins with a column of group 1
metals on the left-hand side, followed by a column
of group 2 alkaline earth metals. These columns
are followed by a block of 40 elements divided into
ten columns of four elements each. The groups in
this block, collectively called the transition metals,
are numbered 3 through 12. Groups 13 through 18
make up the right-hand side of the table. A
diagonal dividing line separates the nonmetals in
the upper-right portion of this block, such as
oxygen, carbon, and nitrogen, from the metals
such as tin and lead in the lower left portion.

ARRANGEMENT
OF TABLE

Thereisanadditional block of 28 elements, divided into two

rows of 14 elements each, that is usually placed beneath the
main table. These are the rare earth elements, whose
properties are all remarkably similar. They are so similar to one
another that chemists have difficulty separating them when
they occur together as mixtures. This additional block really
belongs between the first block, consisting of groups 1 and 2,
and the transition metal block. For convenience it is placed at
the bottom of the table rather than in its proper place.
Otherwise the periodic table would be very wide and would not
lend itself to being represented on wall charts.
Scientistsrefertothe horizontal rows in the periodic table as
periods. Periods vary in length. Moving through the table from
top to bottom, the successive periods contain 2, 8, 8, 18, 18,
32, and 32 elements. These numbers correspond to the
maximum number of electrons that can be accommodated in
the largest electron shell in an atom of any element belonging

USES OF THE
PERIODIC
TABLE
Theperiodictableis an important tool for scientists
and students studying the chemical elements. If a
person knows the main properties of each of the
groups in the periodic table and how chemical
properties vary within a group, he or she can predict
the properties of any particular element with a
reasonable degree of confidence. For example, if a
student needs to know the properties of francium, she
can predict that it, like other elements of group 1, will
be a soft metal and will react even more vigorously
with water than the elements above it. If another
student wants to predict what compounds tellurium
will form in combination with hydrogen, he can guess
that the two elements will form H2Te because the
other elements in telluriums group form similar

HISTORY
Anumberofchemistscontributed to the
development of the periodic table during
the 19th century; however, Mendeleyev is
regarded as the primary discoverer. His
version of the table was the first to
accommodate all the known elements and
also successfully predicted the existence
of several elements that had not yet been
discovered. These undiscovered elements
included
gallium,
scandium,
and
germanium.

HISTORY
Atfirst,theordering of the elements was based
on atomic weightthe weight of a single atom of
the element. This method of ordering broke down
in a few cases, such as tellurium and iodine. The
atomic weight of tellurium is actually higher than
that of iodine, suggesting that tellurium belongs
in group 17 while iodine belongs in group 16.
Judging by their chemical properties, however,
tellurium belongs in group 16 and iodine in 17.
This anomaly was resolved in 1914, when it was
discovered that atomic number provides a better
basis than atomic weight for ordering the
elements. Tellurium has an atomic number of 52

HISTORY
Elementswithsimilar properties are placed in the
same group of the periodic table, but for many
years it was a mystery why these elements
behaved similarly. At the beginning of the 20th
century, when theories of physics changed
rapidly, an approximate explanation for the
repeating patterns within the periodic table was
found. Scientists discovered that the elements
within a single group of the periodic table
possess the same number of outer-shell
electrons, particles that had not even been
discovered when scientists produced the first
periodic tables.