The Periodic Table: Most Powerful Icon In Science

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The periodic table is the sequence of elements arranged in order of atomic number. The periodic table is one of the most powerful icons in science. Throughout its long history, the periodic table has been disputed, altered and improved as science has progressed and as new elements have been discovered. Certain elements such as silver, gold, carbon, and oxygen have always been recognized. Antoine Lavoisier, French scientist, created a list of 23 known elements during the late 1790’s. Lavoisier grouped the elements based on their properties into gases, non-metals, metals and earths. By 1870, there were approximately 70 known elements. Along with the discovery of new elements, new scientific data related to the elements and their compounds were found. Chemists soon became overwhelmed with trying to learn the properties of the numerous elements.Using newly standardized values for atomic weights, English chemist John Newlands suggested in 1864 that when the elements were arranged …show more content…

Mendeleev is given more credit than Meyer because he published his organization scheme first and went on to better demonstrate its usefulness. Mendeleev, who built upon earlier discoveries by scientists such as Antoine Lavoisier and John Newlands, ordered the elements according to atomic weight. Mendeleev could see that certain chemical properties were repeated periodically; however, not all the elements fit this pattern neatly. Mendeleev's solution was to move certain elements to new positions, despite their accepted weight, in order to group them with other elements sharing similar properties.The real genius of Mendeleev’s achievement was to leave gaps for undiscovered elements. He even predicted the properties of five of these elements and their compounds. And over the next 15 years, three of these elements were discovered and Mendeleev’s predictions shown to be incredibly

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