The Periodic Table

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introduction:

The Periodic Table is recognisable to anybody who has ever stepped into a science laboratory.  It is a way of ordering the chemical elements in such a way that demonstrates the periodicity of the chemical and physical properties.  Elements with similar properties are listed in vertical columns and are called groups.  The position of an element in the Periodic Table correlates to the arrangements of electrons possessed by the atoms of that element.  It also shows that the chemical properties of an element depend on the number of electrons in the outer, valence, shell.  These electrons are called the valence electrons.

Periodic Table picture is courtesy of Chemical Elements

This is the type of table that is most commonly used, it was originally developed by Dmitri Mendeleev (see History).  Other forms of the Periodic table have also been developed (see Other Periodic Tables), but are not commonly used,