Oct 07
Use the new Periodic Table:
So why change it? According to Mohd Abubakr from Microsoft Research in Hyderabad, the table can be improved by arranging it in circular form. He says this gives a sense of the relative size of atoms–the closer to the centre, the smaller they are–something that is missing from the current form of the table. It preserves the periods and groups that make Mendeleev’s table so useful. And by placing hydrogen and helium near the centre, Abubakr says this solves the problem of whether to put hydrogen with the halogens or alkali metals and of whether to put helium in the 2nd group or with the inert gases.
or the old one…
October 7th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Jenny is just now getting interested in chemistry, molecules and the periodic table. I’m surprised at how much I remember from how to read the old one, I’m not sure I want to “relearn” a new one.
October 7th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Circular idea is more like nonsense. In the old table atoms get smaller from left to right and larger from top to bottom. How much? Let me know if you ever see them isolated. A few bigger ones have been seen in a lattice, but the electron shells do their own “dance” around free flying atoms.
I’d say hydrogen is extremely caustic and Helium is sure inert.
Perhaps “Chemical Man” can enlighten us.