11/20/2017 Periodic Table of Elements

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Periodic Table
STRANGE NEWS of Elements
By Tim Sharp, Reference Editor | August 28, 2017 10:24pm ET
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HISTORY
The periodic table of elements arranges all of the known chemical elements in an informative
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array. Elements are arranged from left to right and top to bottom in order of increasing
atomic number. Order generally coincides with increasing atomic mass.
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The rows are called periods. The period number of an element signi es the highest energy
level an electron in that element occupies (in the unexcited state), according to the Los
Alamos Laboratory. The number of electrons in a period increases as one moves
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down the periodic table; therefore, as the energy level of the atom increases, the number of
energy sub-levels per energy level increases.

Elements that occupy the same column on the periodic table (called a "group") have identical
valance electron con gurations and consequently behave in a similar fashion chemically. For
instance, all the group 18 elements are inert gases. [Related: How Are the Elements
Grouped?]
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11/20/2017 Periodic Table of Elements

'Father' of the periodic table

Dmitri Mendeleev, a Russian chemist and inventor, is considered the "father" of the periodic
table, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. In the 1860s, Mendeleev was a popular
lecturer at a university in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since there were no modern organic
chemistry textbooks in Russian at that time, Mendeleev decided to write one, and
simultaneously tackle the problem of the disordered elements.

Putting the elements in any kind of order would prove quite di cult. At this time, less than
half of the elements were known, and some of these had been given wrong data. It was like
working on a really di cult jigsaw puzzle with only half of the pieces and with some of the
pieces misshapen.

Mendeleev ultimately wrote the de nitive chemistry textbook of his time, titled "Principles of
Chemistry" (two volumes, 18681870), according to Khan Academy. As he was working on it,
he came upon a signi cant discovery that would contribute greatly to the development of the
current periodic table. After writing the properties of the elements on cards, he began
ordering them by increasing atomic weight, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. This
is when he noticed certain types of elements regularly appearing. After intensely working on
this "puzzle" for three days, Mendeleev said that he had a dream in which all of the elements

fell into place as required. When he woke up, he immediately wrote them down on a piece of
paper only in one place did a correction seem necessary, he later said.

Mendeleev arranged the elements according to both atomic weight and valence. Not only did
he leave space for elements not yet discovered, but he predicted the properties of ve of
these elements and their compounds. In 1869, he presented the ndings to the Russian
Chemical Society. His new periodic system was published in the German chemistry periodical
Zeitschrift fr Chemie (Journal of Chemistry).

Reading the table

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11/20/2017 Periodic Table of Elements
Reading the table
The periodic table contains an enormous amount of important information:

Atomic number: The number of protons in an atom is referred to as the atomic number of
that element. The number of protons de nes what element it is and also determines the
chemical behavior of the element. For example, carbon atoms have six protons, hydrogen
atoms have one, and oxygen atoms have eight.

Atomic symbol: The atomic symbol (or element symbol) is an abbreviation chosen to
represent an element ("C" for carbon, "H" for hydrogen and "O" for oxygen, etc.). These
symbols are used internationally and are sometimes unexpected. For example, the symbol
for tungsten is "W" because another name for that element is wolfram. Also, the atomic
symbol for gold if "Au" because the word for gold in Latin is aurum.

Atomic weight: The standard atomic weight of an element is the average mass of the
element in atomic mass units (amu). Individual atoms always have an integer number of
atomic mass units; however, the atomic mass on the periodic table is stated as a decimal
number because it is an average of the various isotopes of an element. The average number
of neutrons for an element can be found by subtracting the number of protons (atomic
number) from the atomic mass.

Atomic weight for elements 93-118: For naturally occurring elements, the atomic weight is
calculated from averaging the weights of the natural abundances of the isotopes of that
element. However, for lab-created trans-uranium elements elements with atomic numbers
higher than 92 there is no "natural" abundance. The convention is to list the atomic weight
of the longest-lived isotope in the periodic table. These atomic weights should be considered
provisional since a new isotope with a longer half-life could be produced in the future.

Within this category are the superheavy elements, or those with atomic numbers above 104.
The larger the atom's nucleus which increases with the number of protons inside the
more unstable that element is, generally. As such, these outsized elements are eeting,
lasting mere milliseconds before decaying into lighter elements, according to the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). For instance, superheavy
elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 were veri ed by the IUPAC in December 2015, completing the
seventh row, or period, on the table. Several di erent labs produced the superheavy
elements. The atomic numbers, temporary names and o cial names are:
113: ununtrium (Uut), nihonium (Nh)
115: ununpentium (Uup), moscovium (Mc)
117: ununseptium (Uus), tennessine (Ts)
118: ununoctium (Uuo), oganesson (Og)

The classic Periodic Table organizes the chemical elements according to the number of protons that each has in its atomic
nucleus.
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11/20/2017 Periodic Table of Elements

Credit: Karl Tate, Livescience.com contributor

Additional reporting by Traci Pedersen, Live Science contributor

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Author Bio
Tim Sharp, Reference Editor
Tim Sharp is the Reference Editor for Live Science. He manages articles that explain scienti c
concepts, describe natural phenomena and de ne technical terms. Previously, he was a
Technology Editor at nytimes.com and the Online Editor at the Des Moines Register. He was
also a copy editor at several newspapers. Before joining Purch, Tim was a developmental
editor at the Hazelden Foundation. He has a journalism degree from the University of
Kansas. Follow Tim on Google+ and @TimothyASharp

Tim Sharp, Reference Editor on

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