During the nineteenth century, chemists tried to arrange the elements in an order which related to
the size of the atoms and also showed regular, repeating patterns in their properties. The result
of this effort was the Periodic Table. You can find a traditional version in Appendix VI of your
textbook. On the web, you can find much more useful, interactive versions of periodic tables
such as this one by a company called Lenntech . Each small box containing numbers and letters represents an element.
The number represents the atomic number of the element. Each element has a unique abbreviation
consisting of from 1 to 3 letters. The letter C, for example, is the abbreviation for carbon.
H stands for hydrogen, etc. Ca stands for calcium (not California).
The rows (called periods) of the periodic table and the columns (called groups) are actually
groupings of atoms with similar properties. The atomic number increases as you move from left to
right across the table.
If you move your cursor over one of the elements, it will change to a hand. Clicking on an element
will take you to a page with interesting information about that element. There is much more
information here than we need to learn for this course but it is always good to know where to go if
you need additional information in the future.
On the Lenntech site, you can also sort the elements of the periodic table in various ways, such as
by their relative abundance in the
human
body. See if you can find the answers to the following questions in the web version of the
periodic table.
REVIEW: The atom that represents the greatest weight in the human body is
REVIEW: The three most common atoms in your body are
During the nineteenth century, chemists tried to arrange the elements in an order which related to
the size of the atoms and also showed regular, repeating patterns in their properties. The result
of this effort was the Periodic Table. You can find a traditional version in Appendix VI of your
textbook. On the web, you can find much more useful, interactive versions of periodic tables
such as this one by a company called Lenntech . Each small box containing numbers and letters represents an element.
The number represents the atomic number of the element. Each element has a unique abbreviation
consisting of from 1 to 3 letters. The letter C, for example, is the abbreviation for carbon.
H stands for hydrogen, etc. Ca stands for calcium (not California).