Question

2019 is the 150th anniversary of the periodic table.

So, choose one you known and describe it; how is your periodic table similar or different from the periodic table we know and love?

Answer 1

The periodic table that we know and love is Moseley's modern periodic table which is infact inspired from the great scientist Dmitri Mendeleev's periodic table . He will be without any doubt the most deserving of the title of the father of periodic table. I will always admire his work like the rest of the world for it is the foundation to the one that we have now and he figured it out in a time period where there was no internet or no data available like today.

So if i have to choose one that i know then it will be without any question Mendeleev's periodic table.

Mendeleev's periodic table differs from the one that we are now following. As beautiful as it was, it wasnt perfect, it was also flawed of which the primary reason was that he arranged the elements in the increasing order of atomic mass rather than atomic number which wasnt very convenient later with the discovery of more elements. And the properties of the elements did not periodically vary very much with increase in atomic mass but it did vary with atomic number.

The highlights of the Mendeleevian periodic table was his prediction of the position of certain elements which he named as eka silicon and eka aluminium, which was actually very brilliant and also the prediction of the physical and chemical properties of some elements based on the conclusions he arrived at studying the periodic trends and also using his logic.

As the noble gases werent discovered during the time they were not placed in Mendeleev's periodic table but we have a group for the noble gas family in our Modern periodic table.

However, Mendeleev’s periodic table didn’t support the existence of the isotopes. They are the atoms of the same element with differing weights. It was another flaw of his table, which is now corrected in ours. Mendeleev’s periodic table had gaps for the missing elements at that time and Modern periodic table has no such concept.

Mendeleev’s periodic table has 8 vertical columns called groups and 12 horizontal rows called periods and Modern periodic table has 18 columns called groups and 7 rows called periods.

Mendeleev’s periodic table has elements with dissimilar properties in the same group in some cases but the Modern periodic table’s elements have similar properties repeated at regular intervals. Mendeleev periodic table doesn’t support the concept of the atomic structure but Modern periodic table supports this by grouping the elements in such a manner that their electronic configuration can be deduced easily.

So the differences between both the tables kept aside we cannot ever ignore the contributions made by Mendeleev and during the 150 th anniversary year we cannot go by not mentioning him and his contributions. This great scientist needs to be acknowledged in this occasion.