Arrangement of the Chemical Alphabet: The Periodic Table

"What the ocean was to the child, the Periodic Table is to the chemist."

• Karl Barry Sharpless

May 22, 2023

Krisha Gupta

10th Grade

Vigbyor High School

From Dobereiner’s triads to Newland’s octaves, a plethora of scientists has tried arranging the chemical elements feasibly and reasonably. Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev first created the conceptual layout for the modern periodic table in 1869. At least, that is how the world perceives it.

  It was Alexandre-Emile Beguyer de Chancourtois who first organized the chemical elements according to their atomic weights. Five years before Mendeleev, in 1862, de Chancourtois gave a report to the French Academy of Sciences outlining his arrangement of the elements. He created the telluric helix, an early version of the periodic table. He was the first to observe the periodicity of elements when they were organized in order of their atomic weights. Mendeleev's table was just the first one to be recognized by the scientific community.

  De Chancourtois and Mendeleev arranged the elements in order of increasing atomic weight. This is logical, as protons and isotopes were not yet established at the time because the structure of the atom was still not understood. The modern periodic table, however, arranges the elements in ascending order of atomic number rather than atomic weight.

  The periodic table of elements is an ordered collection of all chemical elements in ascending order of atomic number, or the total number of protons in an atomic nucleus. It is an illustrated compilation of chemical data. There is space for 118 elements in the current periodic table.

  Metals are located in the far leftmost row of the periodic table's horizontal rows, while nonmetals are located in the rightmost row. Elements with similar chemical characteristics are arranged vertically in columns called groups. The elements' atomic structures and their chemical similarity to or differences from one another are detailed in the periodic table. 

The periodic table is set up so that you can quickly spot trends in the element's characteristics. The periodic table is a crucial tool for chemists, physicists, and other scientists who research the characteristics and behavior of elements. It has revolutionized our understanding of the universe as a whole and played an instrumental part in the advancement of modern chemistry. 

It is employed in creating batteries for technical equipment and compounds for the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. The table is used by scientists to research chemicals and plan experiments. It is a helpful tool for anticipating an element's behavior and deciphering the links between them. 

The IUPAC, or the International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry, updates the periodic table as additional information becomes available. According to UNESCO, the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements is "more than just a guide or catalogue of the entire known atoms in the universe; it is essentially a window on the universe, helping to expand our understanding of the world around us." The periodic table is the arrangement of the very core of chemistry—the alphabet of chemistry.