periodic table
Pluralperiodic tables
- 1A chart of the chemical elements arranged in order of atomic number, so that elements with similar properties fall in the same column, or group.
Sodium and potassium share a column of the periodic table, and both react violently with water.
Chemists predicted the properties of undiscovered elements from the gaps in the periodic table.
Note
The name comes from the periodic law: arranged by atomic number, elements with similar properties recur at intervals, so each row ends where a new cycle begins. Chemists treat the table as a map, with positions, regions and ends: William Ramsay in 1903 checks krypton's weight against its place between bromine and rubidium, and transuranium research is life at the end of the periodic table.
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Origin
The table is called "periodic" because it follows the periodic law: when the chemical elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number, elements with similar properties recur at intervals.