Mendeleev organized the known elements in a periodic table based on their atomic weights, leaving gaps that he predicted would be filled by undiscovered elements. When new elements like gallium, scandium, and germanium were discovered later, they matched Mendeleev's predictions, validating his periodic table. The periodic table brought order to the known elements and allowed scientists to predict properties of elements not yet identified.
Mendeleev organized the known elements in a periodic table based on their atomic weights, leaving gaps that he predicted would be filled by undiscovered elements. When new elements like gallium, scandium, and germanium were discovered later, they matched Mendeleev's predictions, validating his periodic table. The periodic table brought order to the known elements and allowed scientists to predict properties of elements not yet identified.
Mendeleev organized the known elements in a periodic table based on their atomic weights, leaving gaps that he predicted would be filled by undiscovered elements. When new elements like gallium, scandium, and germanium were discovered later, they matched Mendeleev's predictions, validating his periodic table. The periodic table brought order to the known elements and allowed scientists to predict properties of elements not yet identified.
Mendeleev organized the known elements in a periodic table based on their atomic weights, leaving gaps that he predicted would be filled by undiscovered elements. When new elements like gallium, scandium, and germanium were discovered later, they matched Mendeleev's predictions, validating his periodic table. The periodic table brought order to the known elements and allowed scientists to predict properties of elements not yet identified.
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Mendeleev’s Periodic Table
Scientists had identified over 60 elements by the time of Mendeleev's Periodic Table construction. Today 112 elements are ordered on the Periodic Table. In Mendeleev's day the atom was considered the most basic particle of matter. The building blocks of atoms (electrons, protons, and neutrons) were discovered later. What Mendeleev and chemists of his time could determine however, was a more accurate atomic weight of each element, i.e., how heavy its atoms were in comparison to an atom of hydrogen, the lightest element, which is known today as relative atomic masses. “I began to look about and write down the elements with their atomic weights and typical properties, analogous elements and like atomic weights on separate cards, and this soon convinced me that the properties of elements are in periodic dependence upon their atomic weights.” --Mendeleev, Principles of Chemistry, 1905, Vol. II Overall understanding of how the elements are related to each other and why they exhibit their particular chemical and physical properties was slow in coming. Between 1868 and 1870, in the process of writing his book, The Principles of Chemistry, Mendeleev created a table or chart that listed the known elements according to increasing order of atomic weights. When he organized the table into horizontal rows, a pattern became apparent--but only if he left blanks in the table. If he did so, elements with similar chemical properties appeared at regular intervals--periodically--in vertical columns on the table.
Mendeleev was bold enough to suggest that new elements not yet discovered would be found to fill the blank places. He even went so far as to predict the properties of the missing elements. Although many scientists greeted Mendeleev's first table with scepticism, its predictive value soon became clear. The discovery of gallium in 1875, of scandium in 1879, and of germanium in 1886 supported the idea underlying Mendeleev's table.
Each of the new elements displayed properties that accorded with those Mendeleev had predicted, based on his realization that elements in the same column have similar chemical properties. The three new elements were respectively discovered by a French, a Scandinavian, and a German scientist, each of whom named the element in honour of his country or region. (Gallia is Latin for France.) Discovery of a new element had become a matter of national pride--the rare kind of science that people could read about in newspapers, and that even politicians would mention.
Claiming a new element now meant not only identifying its unique chemical properties, but finding the atom's atomic weight so the element could be fitted into the right slot in the periodic table. For radioactive atoms that was a tough challenge. At first these atoms were isolated only in microscopic quantities. The straightforward way to identify them was not by their chemical properties at all, but by their radiations. Until the radioactive atoms could be sorted out with traditional chemistry, some scientists were reluctant to call them new elements Criteria that will be addressed: Science as a Human Endeavour “Critical analysis of how and why models and theories have developed over time and justified discussion of the factors that prompted their review.”
